E. MINERALOGY AND GEOLOGY. 131 



be formed, and, in fact, seem always to have existed, along 

 the retreating edge of the great southern glacier. The natu- 

 ral consequence is that there are every where stratified ter- 

 races, without border barriers (these originally constituted by 

 the ice that has vanished), resting at successively higher or 

 lower levels as one moves north or south upon unstratified 

 drift of older date, the northernmost of these terraces being 

 the oldest, while those farther south belong to later steps in 

 the waning of the ice-fields. New York Herald, Sept. 6, 1872. 



RECENT UPHEAVAL OF THE PATAGONIAN COAST. 



In illustration of the recent upheaval of certain portions of 

 the South American coast, Professor Agassiz, speaking in a 

 letter to Professor Peirce of the geology of the Straits of Ma- 

 gellan, remarks that about a mile back from the shore, near 

 Possession Bay, he found, at a height of nearly 150 feet above 

 the sea-level, a salt pond, which, to his very great surprise, 

 contained marine shells, some of them still living, of species 

 common in the adjacent ocean waters. The most abundant 

 were Fusus, My 'tilus'JBuccinum, Patella, etc., occurring in ap- 

 parently the same numerical relation as in the waters of the 

 bay. 



The period at which this upheaval took place could not be 

 determined ; but it certainly could not be very remote, in 

 view of the fact that so many specimens were still living. The 

 pond appears to become nearly dry in the winter season, the 

 small quantity of water remaining in it being intensely saline. 

 JVew York Tribune, July 2, 1872. 



OCCURRENCE OF ASPHALTS. 



Professor Newberry > in an article published in the Amer- 

 ican Chemist upon the asphalts, expresses the opinion that, 

 without exception, they are more or less perfectly solidified 

 products of the spontaneous evaporation of petroleum. In 

 many instances the process of the formation of asphalt may 

 be witnessed as it takes place in nature, and in oil stills vari- 

 eties of asphalt are constantly produced, These are undistin- 

 guishable from the natural ones. 



Among the most important of our asphaltic minerals are 

 the Albertite and Grahamite the first from New Brunswick, 

 the second from West Virginia. Both occur in fissures opened 



