presence of water in alcohol. The dry salt in combining with the water of the alcohol recovers its blue color, and when this color ceases to be produced, water is no longer present. To obtain anhydrous alcohol, strong alcohol is to be saturated with chlorid of calcium, and the portion first distilled from it is to be treated with the dry sulphate until the blue color ceases to appear. These experiments should be performed in closed vessels, to prevent the interference of atmospheric moisture. G. C. S. 12. On the Compounds of Phosphoric Acid with Aniline; by ED. C. NICHOLSON, (Phil. Mag., Jan., 1847.)-The facility with which the salts of aniline crystallize, led to the attempt to investigate its several phosphates, which might be supposed analogous to the phosphates of ammonia. Two tribasic phosphates were obtained, one being 2(HO, C12H,N)HO, PO,, the other (HO, C, 2H,N,) 2HO, PO, cor. responding to the ammonia salts, and like them anhydrous. The attempt to form the salt with three equivalents of base or one containing soda (analogous to microcosmic salt) was unsuccessful. Two pyrophosphates were formed at the same time, acid and neutral; the latter could not be isolated; the former (HO, C12H,N,) HO, PO, corresponds to acid phyrophosphate of soda, but has no analogue in the ammonia series. 12 The metaphosphate was formed similar to the soda salt; the ammonia salt exists only in solution. The conclusion is a natural one, that organic bases form series of salts with polybasic acids resembling those of the metallic oxyds. G. C. S. 13. On the relations of Glycocoll and Alcargene; by Mr. THOMAS S. HUNT. We have received an interesting paper from Mr. Hunt on the relations of these two bodies, which we defer to our next number. He points out the fact that the formulas of the two bodies are the same, excepting the substitution of As for N, and instances some of the homologous compounds as follows: C, H, AsO, 4 5 4 II. MINERALOGY AND GEOLOGY. 1. Hauerite, a New Mineral Species; by W. HAIDINGER, (Poggendorff's Annalen, Vol. lxx, p. 148.)-Hauerite belongs to Mohs's order of blende, and resembles very much several true brown zinc-blendes. Its crystals belong to the tessular system: they are partly perfect octahedrons, partly combinations of this form with faces of the hexahedron and other modifying planes. One of the two crystals submitted to my examination by Mr. Berghofer, is a perfect and distinct octahedron, whose axis measures three quarters of an inch. The mineral cleaves with extreme facility parallel to the faces of the cube. Its lustre is between metallic adamantine and imperfectly metallic; the color ranges between dark reddishbrown and brownish-black, and in the thinnest films obtained by cleav age, it shows a low degree of brownish-red translucency; streak brownish-red; hardness =40, or that of fluor; specific gravity, according to von Hauer, 3-463. In a glass tube before the blowpipe, an abundance of sulphur is given off, leaving a green residue soluble in acids with a disengagement of sulphuretted hydrogen. This residue when treated alone becomes superficially brown again, before the blowpipe. A fragment treated with salt of phosphorus does not (as is also true of manganese-blende from Nagyág) become of a violet color in the outer flame, until the whole of the sulphuret of manganese is decomposed. Upon platina foil with soda, it gives the reaction of manganese. In composition, it would therefore seem to be a higher grade of sulphuret of manganese; and guided by its isomorphism with iron pyrites, which is expressed by the formula Fe S2, we may infer that the formula of Hauerite is Mn S2. According to the analysis of W. Adolphus Patera, the composition of the substance in question is as follows: sulphur 53-64, manganese 42-97, iron 1.30, silica 1·20 = 99·11, calculating the iron as sulphuret of iron, and deducting it, this would give, in one hundred parts, It is remarkable that the form of the only sulphuret of manganese, with which we were hitherto acquainted, (manganese-blende, alabandine,) and whose composition is MnS, should likewise belong to the tessular system, and also show distinct cleavage parallel to the faces of the cube. Alabandine, however, is more semi-metallic in lustre, has a green streak, and gives off no sulphur in a glass tube before the blowpipe. The writer first took the crystals from their color, form, streak, and manner of grouping, for weathered iron pyrites, when his attention was drawn by Mr. von Hauer to their perfect hexahedral cleavage; further investigation then established the distinctness of this beautiful species beyond a doubt. Hauerite occurs at the sulphur-pits at Kalinka near Végles, in the neighborhood of Altsohl in Hungary. The crystals are met with in clay and in gypsum, occasionally associated with sulphur of a fine yellow tint, which is nearly transparent. They occur either insulated or grouped together like certain varieties of globular iron pyrites. The name proposed was given this species as an acknowledgment of the high merits of his excellency the Privy Counsellor and Vice President, von Hauer, and because of the part which his son, Mr. F. von Hauer, took in the determination of the species. The substance was first noticed by Mr. C. v. Adler, at that time employed at Kalinka, and from this gentleman several persons received specimens. Hauerite will perhaps always remain a mineralogical rarity. The writer however looks forward with pleasure to the receipt of further specimens direct from the mining authorities of Lower Hungary. 2. Coal and Iron in India, (Mining Journal, April 10, 1847.)-As it has now been determined by the East India Company, and supported by government, that the railway system shall be extended to India, and a guarantee given for a dividend on the capital invested, any in formation respecting the localities from which supplies of fuel can be drawn, must prove interesting, and not less so the capabilities for the manufacture of iron. Hitherto the iron mines of India-though yielding iron in no respect inferior to the famous mines of Dannemorahave been scarcely opened, from the deficiency of the means of transport; and the coal-fields, though of great richness and extent, have lain neglected, principaily from the same cause. The coal-fields of India are largely distributed over its surface; coal has been traced from Burdwan to the westward, across the valley of Palamow, through the district of Sohagpore to Jubulpore, the neighborhood of Sak, and the Towa River, in Nerbudda-four hundred and twenty miles from Burdwan. In the same parallel of latitude it is found in the province of Cutch, and is extended across the centre of India, to the northeast extremity of Assam, forming a zone, which stretches from 69° to 93° east longitude, and from 20° to 25° north latitude. There are also two situations where coal has been found distinct from this extensive and well-defined belt-Hurdwar and Attock-the first near the source of the Ganges; the latter, near that of the Indus. The Nerbudda river extends seven hundred miles along the very centre of the above zone; and coal in three situations has already been found on its banks. The Burdwan coal-field is of immense importance; the collieries at present opened are situated one hundred and forty miles from Calcutta, and the district is traversed by two rivers-the Damooda and the Adjii; the face of the country is undulating, presenting a difference of level be tween the heights and valleys of about sixty feet. The surface is composed of a yellow clay, supporting a good soil-both slightly calcareous; this clay rests on a grey sandstone, which effervesces with acids, seven feet in thickness; and where exposed to the air, in many places an efflorescence of soda is found upon it. Beneath this rock, an inferior coal is found, accompanied by shale, containing impressions of plants, bending over the low hills, and descending deep beneath the valleys; beneath these, good coals are found: and this portion of the deposit has been traced in a southwest direction eleven or twelve miles, and in a northwest line for seven miles-thus forming a curve. At a depth of about fifty feet, two beds of excellent coal occur-one, eight feet, and the other nine feet in thickness; below these, thirteen beds of sandstone and shales occur; and the greatest depth reached is eightyeight feet, where the excavation is terminated by a hard grey sandstone. The whole district abounds in rich and valuable iron ores of various kinds; and it has been proved, by the erection of temporary furnaces at Sheargur, that immense quantities of iron can be made at little expense. The average of the ores produce fifty per cent. of iron. A prospectus, drawn up in 1828, pointing out the benefits likely to arise from establishing iron-works in India, led to the formation of the Porto Novo Works, near Madras, now in succesful operation; and, as the subject is one of immense importance to the construction of railroads in India, we shall, in a future number, give the substance of a report by Capt. Campbell, which will, doubtless, throw much light on the present position of the coal and iron districts. 3. On Slaty Cleavage; by DANIEL SHARPE, (Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc., No. 9, p. 74.)—Mr. Sharpe commences his very valuable article on slaty cleavage by describing the various distorted forms of certain species of shells in fissile rocks, showing that these forms depend on the positions of the shells with relation to the direction of cleavage. He observes that the same shells in rocks that are not fissile are not thus distorted; and on a single slab or layer the various specimens are all distorted in the same direction. This observation led him to throw together many species which he had before considered distinct. He illustrates the subject by figures of distorted forms of the Spirifer giganteus and Sp. disjunctus from Tintagel and South Petherwin, copies of which, reduced one-half, are here given. (We have collected together the several separate cuts of Mr. Sharpe for more convenient comparison.) Figure 1 to 4, Spirifer disjunctus; 5 to 8, Spirifer giganteus. All reduced onehalf, except fig. 8, which is reduced two-thirds. Fig. 1 represents the S. disjunctus of its proper form, and the following are distorted shells of this species and giganteus. The lines zz mark the direction of the lines of cleavage. These shells, he remarks, are usually flattened or narrowed in a direction perpendicular to the cleavage, and drawn out, or pressed out, in the direction of the dip of the cleavage planes. Figure 2 represents a specimen which so lay in the rock as to intersect the slate layers at an angle of 60°; it is shortened one-half by the distorting force. Figure 3 is an example of a cast lying at an angle with the slaty structure of 10° or 15°; the force causing distortion has pressed together the shell on one side of the middle line and lengthened it out on the other; and at the same time the shell is compressed at right angles with the cleavage. Figure 4 represents another cast in a different position; the large part of the shell is pressed under the other part and concealed, and at the same time the remainder is so expanded that the impressions of the hinge portion are nearly double their usual length, this expansion taking place "as usual in the direction of the dip of the cleavage." Figure 5 (a cast of Spirifer giganteus) represents a case nearly like figure 3, in which the plane of bedding of the shell made an angle of less than 5° with the cleavage; the lower half is very much expanded in the plane of cleavage, and has lost thereby its radiations. In figure 6 there is the same angle between the plane of bedding and dip of cleavage, but a different position of the shell, in consequence of which one-half was extremely shortened, while the other was as remarkably widened. In figure 7 a still more singularly lengthened cast of S. giganteus is shown; it was from a bed where the cleavage intersected it at an angle of 1° only. The elongated half of the cast of the hinge is here three times the length of the other half, and the hinge area is singularly widened, while a great part of the cast of the body of the shell is lost. Figure 8 represents a specimen (imperfect in the hinge portion) expanded in the direction of its length; although not seen in place, Mr. Sharpe observes that there can be little doubt that the distortion took place in a direction parallel to the dip of the cleavage planes. He concludes from the various facts, that the existing forms may be accounted for by supposing that the rocks in which they are imbedded have undergone compression in a direction perpendicular to the planes of cleavage, and a corresponding expansion in the direction of the dip of the cleavage. Mr. Sharpe next considers the uniformity of the strike of the dip over large areas, and its parallelism to the anticlinal axes or the ranges of mountains, a view which we believe was first brought out by Necker. He mentions the long lines of uniform strike of cleavage in North Wales, Devonshire, and Cornwall, and the opposite dip on the different sides of the lines of vertical dip; and he supports the view presented by Mr. Darwin in his work on South America, that this variation in the dip may arise from the planes of cleavage bending in the direction of great curves more or less abrupt. He points out two parallel lines of vertical cleavage in North Wales thirty-five miles apart, having a nearly northeast strike, either side of which the dip gradually diminishes. Other similar examples also are pointed out. A relation between the inclination of the cleavage planes and the elevation of the strata is apparent in the beds; the dip of the cleavage is greater the greater that of the bedding, though the two differ much. In North Wales the cleavage planes usually dip 20° or 30° more than the bedding; while in the middle of Devonshire and Cornwall they are less inclined than the bedding. In the following section (figure 9) in Carnarvonshire, Figs. 9 and 10. North Wales, there are several anticlinal and synclinal axes of the stratification, yet, as shown in figure 10, only one axis of cleavage. The several anticlinal and synclinal axes, excepting the central one, have not influenced the cleavage, which follows uniformly its own direction through beds dipping in opposite directions. "Still there is so much relation between the direction of the cleavage planes and the position of the beds, that we might infer from this section alone, that the cause which produced the cleavage of the rocks had helped to determine the elevation of the beds." |