324 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



v 



informed that at least ten crystals of the diamond had been found in Burke 

 County, Ga., two in Habersham, two in Hall, and one in Union County. 

 The largest of these is said to have been sold for $150 in Philadelphia. 

 The whole number of diamonds thus far found in the United States, cannot 

 therefore be less than thirty, nearly all of which occurred in itacolumite. 



Mineralogy of Greenland. A Danish company, formed some years since 

 for the purpose of working the mines of Greenland, have reported, as the 

 result of their preliminary investigations, the discovery of numerous strata 

 of coal, some of which contain trunks of trees more than thive feet in di- 

 ameter, a fact which strikingly indicates the great change of climate in 

 this country, since the only tree which is now found is the meagre and sorry 

 salix-arotica. In Frederickshab, yellow copper and tin pyrites have been 

 discovered. 



Tin in California. At a recent meeting of the Boston Xat. Hist. Soc., 

 Dr. C. T. Jackson stated that a locality containing tin ore had been discov- 

 ered at Los Angelos, California, within the limits of the United States; the 

 quantity of ore is very large, and it yields 60j per cent, of oxide of tin, with 

 bi'own oxide of iron. A company has been formed to work it. 



Remarkable Vein of Gold in Georgia. At the last meeting of the American 

 Association at Springfield, Mr. Win. P. Blake described a remarkably rich 

 gold vein in the bed of the Chestatec River, Georgia. It occurs in very 

 hard hornblendic gneiss, which requires blasting. The gold is found in a 

 layer of quartz and carbonate of line about an inch thick, and is associated 

 with Bornite (a telluret of bismuth), and other minerals. About $3000 

 worth of gold was thrown out at one blast, and the fragments of rock 

 could be placed in a bushel basket. The specimens are remarkably beautiful. 



Lake and Pond Ramparts in Vermont. At the meeting of the Am. Associ- 

 ation for the Promotion of Science, 1850, Mr. C. H. Hitchcock, in a paper on 

 the above subject, referred in the first instance to the reported walled lake in 

 Iowa. This is situated in Wright County, in a large plain, covering an area 

 of 1000 acres; is from two to twenty-five feet deep, with a red, sandy bot- 

 tom. Around the lake is a wall of heavy stone, in some places ten feet high, 

 and thirteen feet wide at the base, sloping up both sides to five feet at the 

 top, composed of boulders from fifty pounds to three tons in weight. The 

 top of the wall is level, while the land is undulating. This work has been 

 referred by some to aborigines of the country, but such a supposition is 

 without foundation. In Vermont, similar walls of an artificial appearance 

 have been noticed, one on Wilioughby Lake, being from five to six feet 

 in heiu'ht. The agency which ha< produced these embankments, Mr. H. 

 considered to be ice. which in the winter, by expansion, would force the 

 fragments of rocks from the central part of the lake to the shore. In one 

 winter the progress -nould be small: but in the course of years, or of ages, 

 the collection might be large, if the materials were abundant. Mr. J. D. 

 Whitney said he had conversed with a gentleman who had visited the lake 

 in Iowa, and he had told him that the statements which had been published 

 were greatly exaggerated. There was nothing like a regular wall. He con- 

 sidered it not very different from other phenomena connected with drift 

 boulders which he had seen. 



On the occurrence of Fossiliferous Limestone beneath Granite and Mica Slate 

 in Vf-rmont. At the Springfield meeting of the American Association for the 

 Promotion of Science, Prof. Hitchcock called attention to a deposit of fos- 

 siliferous limestone, recently discovered by him beneath granite and mica 



