us have the facts discussed honestly, and few can do that better than he can; but let the theories be kept to be aired before scientific societies and published in their journals. Meteorology has suffered more than most sciences from building castles in the air. Let us lay a firm foundation before we begin the structure. 9. MINERALOGY. "HERE there is no room for might, could, would, or should,—but it is so; native lead in melaphyre!' With these confident words Dr. Zerrenner introduces to us the discovery of native lead imbedded in a rock at Stüzerbach, in Thuringia.* And, in truth, his expressions of assurance are by no means ill-timed; for there is confessedly a little scepticism lurking in the minds of many of us as to the genuineness of such a find-scepticism which is perhaps pardonable enough when we remember how often the mineralogist has been bitten by describing old shot and rifle bullets as natural productions! In the case before us, however, there seems no reason to think that Dr. Zerrenner has misplaced his confidencejudging at least from the illustration which shows the globules of lead imbedded in the cavities of the amygdaloidal melaphyre, and more especially from his description which refers to it as running through the rock in strings. Native lead is also said to have been found, within the last few years, associated with gold in the auriferous drifts of some of the deep mining "leads" in Victoria. Quite recently, too, we have seen some reputed native lead in the form of rounded shot, coated with a whitish incrustation, and accompanied by magnetic iron-ore and native gold, from the old auriferous district in Co. Wicklow. On a question so obscure and enigmatical as that of the origin of the diamond, every tittle of evidence is worth recording. Dr. Göppert, in his famous essay which gained a prize at the Haarlem Academy in 1864, argued strongly in favour of the formation of this mineral by the wet way. He now publishes an account of certain diamonds containing organic structures tending to confirm his views.‡ Two diamonds in the Royal Mineralogical Museum in Berlin were found to enclose numerous green cells closely resembling those of many algæ. One of the diamonds, weighing 263 milligrammes, contains a very large number of perfectly round Berg und Hüttenmännische Zeitung,' No. 12, 1869, p. 105; also, Mineralogische Nachrichten,' 1869, p. 33. The Gold-fields and Mineral Districts of Victoria.' By R. Brough Smyth. Melbourne, 1869. Pp. 420. Ueber algenartige Einschlüsse in Diamanten, und über Bildung derselben.' Abliandl. d. Schlesisch. Gesellsch. (§ Naturwiss. u. Medicin), 1869, p. 62. green granules, which appear to be isolated cells not unlike those of Protococcus pluvialis. The new species is accordingly named P. adamantinus. In the second diamond, weighing 345 milligrammes, the cells are less round and more elongated in form, while they frequently unite so as to form a loose parenchymatous tissue: they find their best representatives in Palmogloea macrococca, and Göppert has accordingly ventured to name the new diamond-plant Palmogloeites adamantinus. Once again, the old mistake has been repeated in Australia. In the New England district a stone was found, about the size and shape of a duck's egg, and weighing 6 oz. 13 dwts. 12 grs. troy. Of course it was taken for a diamond, and rumour was soon rife as to its prodigious worth. A few days after announcing the discovery, the Australian Mail' coolly adds, "The great diamond' which had created so much sensation has proved to be a piece of crystal-quartz!" * Hitherto crystallized quartz has been artificially prepared only by wet processes. But the presence of this mineral in rocks usually referred to an igneous origin, naturally leads to the belief that it may certainly be produced also in the dry way. Acting on this belief, Gustav Rose has recently experimented on the fusion of silica, adularia, and other minerals, in salt of phosphorus and in borax. His experiments were conducted on a large scale at the furnaces of the Royal Porcelain Manufactory at Berlin. Crystallized silica was thus obtained, but in the form of small six-sided plates, unlike the crystals of common quartz, from which it also differed in having the low density of 2.3. Rose has thus produced not ordinary quartz, but Vom Rath's curious new species Tridymite, which has been already described in this Journal. Whilst he has thus obtained artificial tridymite, he does not despair of forming artificial quartz by a modification of his process. Spectrum analysis has been applied, by Vogelsang and Geissler, to the difficult question of determining the chemical nature of the fluid found enclosed in minute quantity in the cavities of certain quartz-crystals.† Fragments of quartz were placed in a small retort, which was connected with an air-pump and exhausted; then by the application of heat the quartz decrepitated, and the evolved vapour was examined in a Geissler-tube. The presence of carbonic acid was thus abundantly proved, and this was confirmed by the turbidity which it produced in lime-water. Among some minerals examined by Herr Petersen from the St. Wenzel mine, near Wolfach, in Baden, he finds a new species belonging to the interesting group of antimonial sulphides of silver.‡ *Monatsbericht d. k. preussichen Akad. d. Wiss.,' 1869, p. 449. The new mineral is to be called Polyargyrite or Weichglaserz. It occurs in small iron-black crystals, belonging to the cubic system, and consisting of 12 Ag S+ Sb S3. Now that we are acquainted with another member of these antimonial sulphides, it may be well to compare the composition and crystalline system of these minerals, since it is hardly probable that another species of this group will be found containing more silver sulphide than is present in polyargyrite. Another new mineral from the same locality is described under the name of Wolfachite. It crystallizes in the rhombic system, and contains:-Ni S, + Ni (As, Sb.). English cars will not easily get reconciled to the sound of Wollongongite the name which Professor Silliman proposes for a new native hydrocarbon, which promises to become of great technical importance.* It seems to be a variety of cannel, occurring abundantly in the Wollongong district of the Illawarra coal-field in New South Wales. On distillation it yields. On distillation it yields a large volume of gas of remarkably high illuminating power. A mineral mistaken for augite has lately been found by Professor Brush to be a new variety of chrysolite, and he has accordingly named it Hortonolite, in recognition of Mr. Silas Horton's courtesy in calling his attention to it. It occurs in the form of dull blackish rhombic crystals, in the iron mine at Monroe, Orange Co., New York; and from its abundance it may become of some commercial importance as an iron-ore. It is chemically a chrysolite, containing iron, magnesia, and manganese. Among the fine pebbles of stream-tin from Durango, in Mexico, it is well known that the mineralogist finds the most beautiful little crystals of limpid topaz. With these there have lately been detected certain oblique crystals of an orange-coloured mineral, which Professor Brush names after the locality. The following is the general formula of Durangite, where the protoxides are soda and manganous oxide, whilst the sesquioxides are alumina and ferric oxide: (3 RO) + ‡ (R, 0) As 05. Fluorine is also present in this mineral, but its quantity has not been determined. It is said that Durangite is the only native "fluo-arsenate" which has hitherto been observed. Professor Brush has also lately published the analysis of a Silliman's American Journal of Science,' July, 1869, p. 85. meteoric stone which fell near Frankfort, in Franklin Co., Alabama, on the 5th December, 1868.* The Attention has again been called to the occurrence of pseudomorphs in Bunter sandstone after scalenohedra of calcite.f discoveries of Dr. Blum, already noticed in this Journal, have been supplemented by those of Dr. Klocke, from which it appears that the pseudomorphs occur in several new localities in the neighbourhood of Heidelberg. A new mica, related to biotite and phlogopite, has been described by Von Kobell under the name of Aspidolite, in allusion to the basal face of the crystals often resembling an oval shield (dois). The crystals are small rhombic prisms, of a dark olive-green colour, and are found in the chlorite of the Zillerthal in Tyrol.‡ So complex is the chemical constitution of that curious mineral, the Tourmaline, that Mr. Ruskin not unaptly calls it "more like a medieval doctor's prescription than the making of a respectable mineral." In spite of its complexity, Rammelsberg has lately succeeded in reducing all his analyses of this substance to the general type of the silicate R. Si Os, where R is considered monatomic, and may represent six atoms of any of the monads hydrogen, potassiuni, sodium, and lithium; or three atoms of the dyads magnesium, calcium, manganese, and oxygen; or two atoms of the triads boron and aluminium.§ All tourmalines fall into two sections one represented by the general formula R, Al, B Si2 Oje, which is, of course, obtained by doubling the molecule above; whilst the second section contains nine of these molecules written thus:R. Al12 B, Sig 045. 3 Rammelsberg has also published a chemical note on the constitution of Axinite, and on some native compounds of tantalium and niobium. Some good crystals of Gadolonite-the mineral in which yttria was first discovered-have been examined by M. Des Cloiseaux.¶ He finds the crystals from Hitteröe to be doubly refracting, and to contain from 10 to 12 per cent. of glucina; while those from Ytterby are singly refracting, and contain no glucina. Dr. Sadebeck, of Berlin, whose examination of the crystalline forms of copper-pyrites has already been referred to in this Journal, has lately directed his studies to another common mineral zincblende, and has produced an elaborate paper on the hemihedral forms of this cubic mineral.' * Silliman's American Journal of Science,' Sept., 1869. † Leonhard und Bronn's 'Jahrbuch,' No. 6, 1869, p. 714. 6 Sitzungsberichte d. K. bay. Acad. d. Wissenschaften,' 1869. § Monatsber. d. k. preuss. Ak. d. Wiss.,' 1869, p. 604. Zeitschrift d. deutsch. geol. Gesell.,' No. 3, 1869, pp. 555, 689. Whilst we have no lack of literature on the geology of the volcanic district of Auvergne-of which the excellent works of Serope and Lecoq may be cited as conspicuous examples-there has hitherto been but little written on the mineralogical, chemical, and microscopic structure of the many and varied rocks of that country. It is true that a few of these rocks have been carefully described in the memoirs of Kosmann and of Zirkel, but it has been left for Dr. Lasaulx, of Bonn, to offer us the results of a systematic course of "Petrographic Studies on the Volcanic Rocks of Auvergne.' The first part only has yet appeared, and this is devoted to a description of certain of the Auvergne lavas, so that we must look to the continuation of the memoir for a notice of the basalts, trachytes, melaphyres, and phonolites of this interesting locality. 10. MINING AND METALLURGY. MINING. THE completed returns of the mineral produce of the United Kingdom for the year 1868 have been published in the Mineral Statistics.' The following are the results: Total value of the Minerals produced in the United Kingdom £33.637,558 * Leonhard und Bronn's Jahrbuch,' No, vi., 1869, p. 641. + Calculated at the actual cost of raising, before any charges for movement are added. |