E. MINERALOGY AND GEOLOGY. 135 



by the Swedish government expedition, one of them weigh- 

 ing no less than 49,000 pounds. Not very far from the spot, 

 on the shore at Ovisak, where this mass was found, a rock 

 was observed differing from the basalt of the cliffs, and in- 

 closing iron not only in granules and spherical masses, but 

 as a vein of metal several inches wide and several feet in 

 length. The metal has the appearance of gray cast-iron, has 

 a bright metallic lustre, is very hard, and quite unalterable in 

 air, and has a specific gravity of 5.82. The metal of the 

 larger masses, when heated, has been observed to give off a 

 large quantity of gas. It has been ascertained that this iron 

 evolves more than 100 times its volume of a gas which burns 

 with a pale, blue flame, and is carbonic oxide mixed with a 

 little carbonic acid. Hence the iron is supposed to contain 

 a considerable quantity of carbon and a compound of oxygen, 

 and the mass itself, it is suggested, could at no time have 

 been exposed to a high temperature. 



The iron contains 11 per cent, of oxygen, and when dis- 

 solved in acid leaves a carbonaceous residue. The composi- 

 tion of the metal consists largely of iron, with some nickel, 

 cobalt, sulphur, phosphorus, carbon, and oxygen. Mineral- 

 ogically speaking, the mass is considered to be a very inti- 

 mate mixture of magnetite, of which there would be 40 per 

 cent., with metallic iron and its alloys of nickel and cobalt, 

 as well as of some pure carbon in isolated particles. The 

 view is entertained by many that these rocks are meteoric in 

 their origin, and form part of the original mass that fell in 

 the miocene period. 13 A, June 15, 1872, 233. 



GEOLOGY OF THE WEST INDIES. 



The American Journal of Science contains an abstract of a 

 paper by P. T. Cleve, on the " Geology of the West India Isl- 

 ands," published in the Memoirs of the Swedish Academy of 

 Sciences, and embodying some interesting facts and generali- 

 zations. According to this account, the oldest rocks of the 

 West Indies do not contain fossils ; and the precise determi- 

 nation of their age is, thereforefdifficult, if not impossible. 

 These rocks occur in Trinidad, where they have been named 

 the Caribbean series, and extend farther to the west in the. 

 northern part of South America. They have not yet been 

 detected on the other islands. The oldest fossiliferous rocks 



