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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



rays their extinction. It is the transmuta- 

 tion of motion into heat. 



Extensive Conglomerate Formation on 

 Long Island. A short distance northeast 

 of the village of Farmingdale, on Long 

 Island, there is an extensive formation of 

 ferruginous conglomerate, of much geolo- 

 gical interest, and considerable economic 

 value. It is found in the level sandy tract 

 which extends from near Farmingdale to 

 some fifty miles eastward. Over this tract 

 stones larger than good-sized pebbles are 

 exceedingly scarce. In digging wells, it is 

 found that pebbles and sand occur in lay- 

 ers, at all depths yet penetrated. The con- 

 glomerate consists simply of these sandy 

 and gravelly layers, hardened into a com- 

 pact, brown-colored mass, which can be 

 blasted out in blocks, and which answer a 

 very good purpose for the foundations of 

 buildings. The thickness of the formation is 

 thought to be about 12 feet. The rock ap- 

 pears to grow harder on exposure, and some 

 specimens give out a clear, ringing sound 

 when struck with a hammer. The sand- 

 grains which enter into its composition are 

 of a brown color throughout, while the peb- 

 bles are only colored externally. Com- 

 pounds of iron are associated with the mass, 

 and the waters of the district are also largely 

 ferruginous, whence it is suggested that the 

 formation may be due to a kind of cementing 

 action exerted by the iron, left by the waters 

 that have percolated through the sands. 



Were the Ancient Italians Cannibals ? 



A somewhat remarkable discovery of human 

 and animal remains is announced by Prof. 

 Capellini, of Bologna, in a grotto in the 

 island of Palmeria, the access to which is 

 difficult and dangerous. Here he caused 

 excavations to be made, and the result was 

 the discovery of numerous flint and stone 

 implements, the workmanship of which 

 showed that they belonged to the earliest 

 period of the stone age. Besides these 

 wrought implements and various other ob- 

 jects brought into the cavern by its human 

 occupants, he found a considerable quantity 

 of bones of animals mingled with bones of 

 human beings. The condition of these lat- 

 ter bones, he says, " would justify the infer- 

 ence that the grotto had been inhabited by 



anthropophagi, and that the Italians of that 

 epoch were cannibals, like their contempo- 

 raries in Belgium, France, and Denmark." 



" Among the human bones were found 

 those of women, and part of the jawbone 

 of a child some seven or eight years of age. 

 Some of these bones were entire, others were 

 partially calcined. In the centre of the cave 

 it was possible to discern traces of a fire- 

 place. Prof. Capellini says : ' Whoever has 

 busied himself in prehistoric researches, 

 whoever has read Spring's excellent work 

 on the Chauvaux cavern in Belgium, and 

 the writings of other authors on the subject 

 of the caverns in France, will not hesitate 

 to admit that the discoveries in the island 

 of Palmeria prove that the Italians were, as 

 I have said, man-eaters. For the present 

 it will be sufficient for me to direct the at- 

 tention of naturalists to the subject. The 

 Cyclopians spoken of in the fable were 

 probably these cannibals.' " 



Coal-Lands of the Rocky Mountains. 



According to "Hayden's Eeports," which 

 abound with useful information concerning 

 the new Territories of the West, the coal- 

 deposits of the Rocky Mountains far ex- 

 ceed any thing that had been hitherto sus- 

 pected. Early travellers, as Lewis and 

 Clarke, in 1800 ; Colonel Fremont, in 1842 ; 

 Captain Stansbury, in his visit to Salt Lake, 

 and others, had reported outcrops of coal 

 on the slopes of these mountains, but prob- 

 ably none were aware either of its abun- 

 dance, or the extent of country over which 

 it is spread. Coal is found at different 

 points in the Rocky-Mountain region over 

 an area of some 250,000 square miles in 

 extent, in strata which in some places are 

 from five to thirty-five feet in thickness. Out- 

 crops have been followed on the east flank 

 of the mountains for more than 500 miles 

 north and south ; and if, as Hayden sug- 

 gests, these are fragments of one great 

 basin, broken only by mountain upheavals, 

 or covered by later deposits, then the dis- 

 tance from east to west may be as much as 

 500 miles, or from the " Black Hills " to 

 " Weber Canon." If the coal-strata were 

 ever continuous over this vast area, the 

 subsequent formation of mountains and 

 valleys would leave them broken and dis- 

 connected, as they are now found to be. 



