GEOLOGY. 327 



Haroe Island, latitude 70 25' North, longitude 54 45' West, and obtatined 

 bituminous coal of an excellent quality. The coal strata crops out within a 

 few feet of the shore in the side of a hill, and is from four to five feet thick, 

 and a few feet above the sea level. The samples furnished me by the officers 

 contain small pieces of crystallized naptha, of a color as bright as the finest 

 specimens of gum arabic. I find that on exposing this coal to the action of our 

 atmosphere it loses weight rapidly, and I have, therefore, been obliged to 

 keep it in air-tight vessels. 



They have also furnished me with the English analysis, as follows : 



Specific gravity 1,3848 



Volatile matter 50-6 



Coke, common 9'S4 



Fixed Carbon 39~56 



The natives burn this coal in stoves, and prefer it to the English. The 

 Island of Disco contains abundance of this coal. Captain Hartstein mined the 

 coal on Haroe Island and it was brought on board the vessel in tubs. Cap- 

 tain Inglefield visited these mines and obtained seventy tons of coal, and 

 remarked that a thousand tons could be obtained in a few hours. Captain 

 McClure found coal (bituminous) in latitude 75 North, longitude about 120 

 to 122 "West. Captain Parry, in 1819, found pieces of bituminous coal on 

 Melville Island in latitude 75, longitude 111; and the captain of a whaler 

 who entered Behring's Straits with Captain Colinson, informs me that anthra- 

 cite and bituminous coal is found on the shores of the western coast of the 

 Polar seas. 



Coal in China. Some recent investigations into the character of the an- 

 thracite coal deposits of Fuhkeen, China, have been made by Dr. Macgowan. 

 The mineral is sometimes found equal to the best American variety, and can 

 be landed at the port of Amoy at $4- per ton. At present only a small 

 quantity is produced, chiefly, however, on account of the limited demand that 

 exists for it, as the natives only employ it in the burning of lime ; the smelt- 

 ing furnaces of the adjacent iron mines not being furnished with a sufficiently 

 powerful blast to allow of anthracite being used in them. Fossils obtained 

 from the "underclay" appeared to be identical with similar remains of Stig- 

 maria from corresponding strata of the carboniferous series of England and 

 the United States. 



VERD-ANTIQUE MARBLE. 



"Within a recent period extensive quarries of the beautiful mottled green 

 marble, or aggregation of marble and serpentine, known as Verd-antique, 

 have been discovered, and are now extensively worked, at Eoxbury, Vt. 

 The quarries of this stone in the old world, which were drawn upon to fur- 

 nish decorating materials for some of the finest works of ancient architecture, 

 have almost entirely disappeared. The location of the modern Yerd-antique 

 is on the summit of the Green Mountain Range, in Roxbury, Vt, in a narrow 

 valley made by branches of the "White River and the Dog River, the former 



