E. MINERALOGY AND TECHNOLOGY. 101 



like plumbago. It easily streaks paper, the streak having a 

 slightly olive-brown tinge, and being indelible by India-rub- 

 ber. As a combustible it is of excellent quality, and as such 

 will doubtless be soon brought to the notice of the public. 

 Gas-Light Journal, December 3, 1870. 



GUANO IX THE LOBOS ISLANDS. 



A scientific commission in the interest of the government 

 of Peru has lately been investigating the guano deposits of 

 the Lobos Islands ; and it is reported that the result of their 

 inquiries has been satisfactory, and that immense quantities 

 of very rich guano, equal, if not superior to that of the Chin- 

 cha Islands, have been observed. The analyses of samples 

 are said to have yielded over thirteen per cent, of ammonia. 

 Panama Star and Herald, November 2, 1871, 7. 



FORMATION OF THE NEW ENGLAND COAST. 



Professor Shaler' considers that the Chesapeake and Dela- 

 ware bays, like many of the deep gorges in Switzerland and 

 elsewhere, were formed by the action of ice, and that the ex- 

 istence of Cape Hatteras is due to the uplifting of the rocks 

 on which Richmond is situated. The sand-bars on the coast 

 he believes to have been formed by the material dug out of 

 the Delaware and Chesapeake bays by this ice action, and 

 worked southward by the united force of the floods and cur- 

 rents. He finds that, after we -pass these bars, south of Wel- 

 don the sea-bottom is totally distinct in character, being pure- 

 ly submarine, and formed by the action pf the sea. He points 

 out the existence of a rise and fall of the coast at different 

 portions of its extent ; this, in the most recent geological pe- 

 riod, amounting at Charleston, South Carolina, to from 50 to 

 60 feet ; in Maine to 200 feet ; and to a still greater degree on 

 the coast of Labrador. As a general rule, he thought there 

 was evidence to prove that, taking a line from the centre of 

 the continent to the centre of the sea, the sea-floor was com- 

 ing up and the high elevations were coming down. 



Mr. Hyatt states that observations made by the Coast Sur- 

 vey showed that the coast of Long Island Sound, and south- 

 ward in New Jersey, has been sinking, while the Florida Keys 

 are rising ; and Mr. Xiles remarked that, from the earliest 

 times, in the Adirondacks and different points southerly, there 



