GEOLOGY. 309 



dred feet, to pay for the cost of extraction ; while in every gold-field 

 instances can be pointed to of mines, once worked with great profit, 

 now deserted on account of the poverty of the deeper parts of the 

 lodes." 



Curious Mineral Formation, Some ancient bronze implements 

 recently dug up near Moskowie, in Bohemia, have obtained considera- 

 ble celebrity, not only from archaeologists, but from students of natu- 

 ral history, since on many of them different layers of malachite have 

 been formed, from which an opinion may be arrived at of the con- 

 tinuance on them of the action of the carbonic-acidulated moisture. 

 But still more interesting is the existence of the impression of a leaf 

 upon one of the implements, showing the plainly indented outlines 

 and filaments of one of the under sides of a leaf of the Folium alpense 

 of Linnasus. The formation of such an impression on the perfectly 

 even surface of the malachite was only possible whilst the malachite 

 was forming as quietly as slowly, so that for every removed particle 

 of bronze an atom of malachite was substituted. It must be assumed 

 that it was only possible for such a process to have been completed in 

 the slow progress of years thousands after the instrument had pro- 

 ceeded from the hands of man. This implement is therefore of great 

 importance for the archaeologist, as it proves that instruments of 

 bronze were used in middle Europe at an epoch stretching far beyond 

 the period of historical research. 



Remains of the Plesiosaurus from New Zealand. At the meet- 

 ing of the British Association, 1SG1, Prof. Owen stated that he had 

 obtained evidence, in the form of bones, from New Zealand, that 

 the Plesiosaurus existed in the mesozoic age, in the present region 

 of the Pacific, as well as in the Northern Hemisphere. 



Geolorjy vs. Sugar Refining. During the past year, in the vicin- 

 ity of Tschernigoff, Russia, the complete skeleton of a large mam- 

 moth was discovered. Unfortunately for science, a sugar-refinery 

 was in full play in the adjoining village, and the remains of the ani- 

 mal, which would have been the treasure of any museum, found a 

 second grave in the bone-black furnaces of the manufactory. One 

 tooth only found its way to the Imperial Museum of Moscow. 



