Agulhas current, are considered. The precise problem of the forms of the recent greensands, or rather of glauconite matter, at given depths in the red clay, is not yet satisfactorily answered.-1 A, May 7, 199.

ZONOCHLORITE AND CHLORASTROLITE.

Some time ago, under the name of zonochlorite, Professor Foote described a mineral species found at Neepigon Bay, Lake Superior. This species has recently been re-examined by Mr. George W. Hawes, who placed thin sections of it under the microscope. It consists of green earthy particles disseminated in a white mineral, and hence is evidently not a true species, but a mixture. Analysis shows it to be essentially nothing but a very impure variety of prehnite. The chlorastrolite from Isle Royale has also been reinvestigated by Mr. Hawes, both chemically and microscopically. This, too, appears to be but a mixture similar to zonochlorite. Its specific gravity is somewhat higher than that of pure prehnite, a fact which Mr. Hawes thinks may be due to a slight admixture of epidote.

WAPPLERITE.

This new species is found at Joachimsthal, in crystalline crusts resembling hyalite, in small botryoidal aggregates, and in crude vitreous masses. It is a hydrated calcium arseniate, containing eight molecules of water. Three of these molecules are driven off by a temperature of 100° Centigrade, when, like pharmacolite, it is converted into haidingerite. Frenzel is the discoverer.

CLARITE.

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Under this name Roemer describes a dimorphous modification of enargite, found in the Clara mine, near Schapbach, in the Baden Black Forest. Chemically it is enargite, but varies from the latter in color, density, and crystalline form. Clarite is dark, lead gray, and monoclinic; enargite is iron black, and rhombic.

CHALCOPHANITE.

Under the above name Dr. Gideon E. Moore describes a new mineral from the zinc mines at Stirling Hill, Ogdens

burg, N. J. It occurs in druses, lining the walls and cavities, and also in foliated aggregates of minute crystals. The color is bluish black, lustre metallic, specific gravity 3.907. Its composition is very remarkable, since it contains zine oxide, manganese monoxide and dioxide, and water. It is therefore a hydrate of manganese and zinc, containing the former metal in two states of oxidation. By heating it changes color, and becomes of a tint varying from yellowish bronze to copper red. The new mineral is apparently a product of the decomposition of franklinite and some of its associated species.

THE MASSACHUSETTS SILVER-LEAD MINES.

The following facts concerning the development of silvermining in Massachusetts are given on the authority of Mr. C. W. Kempton, mining engineer, of Newburyport, Massachusetts. The mining region, according to the statement of this gentleman, extends from Gloucester, Massachusetts, on the south, to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on the north, and from the Atlantic, on the east, to a line drawn north and south through "Great Pond," North Andover, Massachusetts, on the west. Within this region is located the first discovered, and thus far the most prominent lode-the "Chipman"-situated in the northerly part of Newburyport, and which has been traced for a distance of three miles. The dip is nearly vertical, and slightly to the north. The ore is chiefly galena, carrying from 50 to 150 ozs. of silver to the ton, with some gold, blende, copper, and pyrites. There is native silver in the quartz, and stephanite has been found. The Chipman and Boynton shafts are on this lode; the last named is down, at the time of this writing, some 100 feet. About $20,000 worth of galena ore was taken out of the Chipman at the start, in sinking the first 75 feet of the shaft. The average thickness of vein-rock on the Chipman lode is about 60 feet. The lode lies between granite on the north and slate on the south. There are not less than eleven parallel veins in this section of the mining district, on several of which mining operations have been commenced, showing well in the majority of cases.

Our informant likewise notices a second variety of ore, viz., the veins carrying tetrahedrite, which often runs ex

ceedingly rich in silver. Of these, the "Bartlett" is spoken of as the most prominent, having an outcrop of vein-rock (limestone) something near to 100 feet in thickness. This vein is described as yielding an abundance of ore, carrying from 200 to 1100 ozs. of silver per ton, and 30 per cent. of copper. Several such gray copper veins are known, and lie in contact with porphyry. A third class of veins lies between the galena veins on the north and the porphyry on the south. They carry both galena and gray copper, but have not thus far been sufficiently investigated to enable an opinion to be formed as to their value.

LAKE AREA OF THE EOCENE AGE IN NEW MEXICO.

One of the most important results of the geological survey of New Mexico, conducted by Lieutenant G. M. Wheeler, United States Engineers, during the season of 1874, is the discovery by Professor Cope of an extensive lake deposit of the eocene age in the western and northern parts of that territory. The deposits cover at least three thousand square miles, and are three thousand feet in thickness, being worn into remarkable bad-land deserts in some localities. This is only the second lake area of this age discovered in the West, the survey under Clarence King having discovered the longest known, viz., that of Wyoming, some years ago. Professor Cope discovered the remains of about one hundred species of vertebrata, mostly mammals, in the New Mexican formations, many of them of peculiar character, and to a great extent different from those of the Wyoming eocene. Carnivora of an antiquated pattern were abundant, and hoofed animals related to the tapir. Eight species of an almost unknown order-the Toxodontia, which is related to rodents and elephants-were also found.

CHAMPLAIN DEPOSITS OF SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND.

Professor Dana, in continuation of his essay upon the geology of the vicinity of Hartford, Connecticut, published in the Journal of Science, remarks that there are three prominent facts indicated by the Champlain deposits of Southern New England. First, the occurrence of a vast flood during the closing part of the melting of the glacier, in which other parts of New England participated; second, the absence of

marine life from Long Island Sound through the glacial period and the early part of the Champlain period; third, a participation in the subsidence which affected the regions. farther north. For all these he presents numerous data in evidence. He finds that while the glacial ice of the White Mountains was not less than 5800 feet, and perhaps even greater, in Southwestern Massachusetts it only extended to the height of about 2600 feet above the sea. Following out the more conclusive evidence, Professor Dana estimates the height, at New Haven, at from 1500 to 2000 feet. This, in his opinion, furnishes at the melting time material for swelling certain waters at least to universal floods. The sink

ing of the land that took place after the ice had reached its height, placing the site of Montreal five hundred feet below the sea-level, making Lake Champlain an arm of the great St. Lawrence Gulf, and other high latitude lands much below the present level, presents, he thinks, a sufficient reason for the change of climate which began the thinning of the glacier, and finally hurried on its dissolution.-4 D, September, p. 169.

GAS WELLS OF PENNSYLVANIA.

The opinion is daily growing more decided among those who are well informed that the gases which are constantly escaping from innumerable wells throughout the oil region of Pennsylvania and adjacent states, represent a value but little, if at all, inferior to the oil itself. The next step after the realization of this fact is its utilization; and, from occasional paragraphs that from time to time appear, there is reason to believe that the industrial employment of this material, of which inestimable volumes have for years been permitted to pass uselessly into the air, will soon become very general. In a few instances the wells have been tubed, and their product utilized with most satisfactory results. We add herewith the following from the National Oil Journal, which indicates that some progress is being made in this important field. The Journal remarks that the yield of the few gas wells that have been tubed shows that the quantity of the product is enormous beyond computation. A gas well near Sarnersville, in the Butler oil region, flows with a pressure of three hundred pounds to the square inch, and

is roughly estimated to yield a million cubic feet of gas ev ery twenty-four hours; and this is only one of many large gas wells, and almost numberless small ones; for it must be remembered that every well which produces oil yields gas also. A survey has just been completed for a line of pipe from Sarnersville to Pittsburgh, a distance of about seventeen miles. It is proposed to lay a six-inch pipe between the points named, and to supply the gas to the manufacturing establishments in Pittsburgh as a substitute for coal.

MELANOSIDERITE, A NEW MINERAL.

Professor Cooke, of Cambridge, has described a new mineral under the name of Melanosiderite. It is compact and amorphous, very brittle, and with a conchoidal fracture. Its lustre is vitreous, color black, and streak brownish-red. In hardness it lies between fluor-spar and apatite, and its specific gravity is 3.39. An analysis shows it to consist essentially of silica, iron, and water; and Professor Cooke regards it as a very basic silicate of iron, most closely allied to Ilisingerite. It comes very near to the common sesquihydrates of iron, but its low specific gravity is regarded as showing a marked distinction from them. It was found in Chester County, Pa.

Professor Cooke has also continued his investigations of the vermiculites, and has described two new varieties, one from Delaware County, Pa., the other from Pelham, Mass. His labors on this group of minerals have led him to the conclusion that they are all unisilicates, and combine with water in several definite proportions, but that the only essential difference between them is in the ratio between the sesquioxide and protoxide bases.