134 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



regard to utilizing the iron ore, however rich, in many local- 

 ities in the absence of fuel, and the great expense attendant 

 either upon bringing this to the ore, or vice versa. If, how- 

 ever, the asphaltum deposits of the state could be used, as was 

 stated in the course of the debate, then the difficulties would 

 be less formidable. San Francisco Bulletin, July 19, 1872. 



COORONGITE, A NEW AUSTRALIAN MINERAL PRODUCT. 



A substance strongly resembling caoutchouc has lately been 

 brought from Australia under the name of coorongite, the 

 name being derived from Coorong, the place where found. 

 Mr. Dyer says that, according to the researches of Australian 

 savants, it can not be considered to be of vegetable origin, but 

 is rather a mineral hydro-carbon, analogous to petroleum. In 

 what manner coorongite has been deposited upon the sand, in 

 the peculiar form of moderately thick strata, is yet to be as- 

 certained by further research. 19 (7, xiil, June, 1872, 186. 



ORIGIN OF MINERAL PHOSPHATES. 



The question as to the origin of the phosphorus occurring 

 in the beds of mineral phosphates found in South Carolina has 

 been a subject of persistent inquiry, and a great variety of 

 hypotheses have been given to account for its existence. In 

 an article read before the London Geological Society upon 

 phosphatic nodules in the cretaceous rock of Cambridgeshire, 

 the opinion was expressed that the phosphate was proba- 

 bly separated by the animal matter (that constituting a nu- 

 cleus to the nodule) from its solution in water which was 

 charged with carbonic acid, this being a well-known solvent 

 of the phosphate. In the discussion of the article, it was sug- 

 gested that phosphoric acid is largely present in sea-water, 

 and reference was made to the present seas of the Newfound' 

 land Banks, where fish exist in enormous quantities, no doubt 

 giving rise to a great deal of phosphatic matter, much of 

 the phosphate attaching to decaying animal matter being de- 

 rived from excrementitious deposits floating on the water. 

 12 A, June 13,1872,134. 



MINERAL IRON IN GREENLAND. 



Reference has already been made in the Annual for 1871 

 to the enormous meteorites recently obtained in Greenland 



