GEOLOGY. 3 1 1 



and shape, that but for its color, as Mr. Moore said, it might be hand- 

 ed bv mistake to the cook to dress, and yet it must have been millions 

 and millions of years since this fish lived and moved about in the 

 water. In the mammal drift which entirely surrounded Bath, the 

 remains of (lie mammal tribe were abundant, and Mr. Moore exhibited 

 many specimens. 



The Fossil Musk Ox. In the valley of Oise, near Paris, Dr. Eug. 

 Robert has found a portion of the skull of this animal, a most inter- 

 esting discovery, which has been brought under the notice of the 

 Academy of Sciences in a memoir by M. Lartet. Here is, then, an 

 animal now retired to North America which formerly lived in quater- 

 nary Europe. We now know that the reindeer, yet more arctic in 

 its migrations, at the same epoch flourished at the foot of the Pyr- 

 enees, and the same may be predicted of other animals now denizens 

 of extreme, northern countries. "How," says M. Lartet, "have 

 such changes in the geographical distribution of these animals been 

 elleeted P Has it been by elective migration from their habitat ? or by 

 the progressive invasion of man ? or by the gradual reduction of spe- 

 cies, condemned to extinction, as has been the case with the great 

 cave bear, the elephant and rhinoceros of glacial times, the great 

 Irish elk, &c. ? These questions remain to be solved, and Ave are 

 still led to repeat what Stephen Geoffrey St. Hilaire said 30 years 

 ago, ' The time of true knowledge in paleontology is not yet come." 



Meteoric Rain. A curious theory has been recently propounded 

 by the eminent but somewhat eccentric scientist, Reichenbach of Vi- 

 enna. He believes in the existence of a cosmical powder or dust 

 which exists all through space, and which sometimes becomes agglom- 

 erated so as to form large and small meteorites, while, at other times, 

 it reaches the surface of our earth in the form of impalpable powder. 

 We know that meteorites are mainly composed of nickel, cobalt, iron, 

 phosphorus, etc. Dr. Reichenbach went to the top of a mountain 

 which had never been touched by spade or pickax, and collected there 

 some dust which he analyzed, and found it to' contain nickel, and co- 

 balt, and phosphorus, and magnesia. It has often been a matter of 

 wonder where the minute quantity of phosphorus so generally distrib- 

 uted on the surface of the earth came from. Mr. Reichenbach, how- 

 ever, claims that he has discovered it in the cosmical dust above 

 mentioned. London Chemical News. 



On Hie Coloring of Ar/ates. At the British Association, 1864, 

 Prof. Tennant gave some interesting details respecting the structure 

 of agate and the artifices resorted to by the workmen of Oberstein in 

 coloring the agate ornaments manufactured at that place and distrib- 

 uted over Europe. A large number of specimens were exhibited, not 

 only of ornaments but of the stones, both cut and uncut, the former 

 well adapted to show the structure. The black color is produced by 

 steeping the specimens in oil, and then blackening them by the action 

 of sulphuric acid. 



Mr. Tennant asked Mr. Tomlinson to speak on the subject, when 

 that gentleman gave some particulars respecting the organization of 

 the factory at Oberstein, and remarked that the principle of colorkza- 

 tion depended on the structure, of the stones : they consisted of alter- 

 nate bands of crystalline and amorphous quartz, the latter only ab- 



