E. MINERALOGY AND GEOLOGY. 241 



from the port of Taganrog. It is thought that this coal will 

 answer an important purpose in connection with the Suez 

 steam navigation, and in all probability drive out of use in 

 that region the English coal which is now universally em- 

 ployed. 13 A, November 14, 1874, 532. 



COAL-FIELD NEAR DRANISTA. 



A coal-field has recently been explored by a party of En- 

 glish engineers near Dranista, which is about fifty miles 

 southwest of the town of Salonica, and is inclosed by a range 

 of mountains of crescent shape, commencing on the south at 

 Mount Olympus, and terminating on the north at the bay of 

 Kitros, in the Gulf of Salonica. An as:2;Teo;ate thickness of 

 about eight feet of coal has been found, extending over an 

 area of 2000 acres, although it is thought probable that the 

 coal-field is of much greater extent, and that the basin con- 

 tains 255,000,000 tons of coal of good quality. 13.4, No- 

 vember 14, 1874, 532. 



GEOLOGY OF COSTA KICA. 



Professor Gabb, in a communication to the American 

 Journal of Science, gives some account of the geology of a 

 portion of Costa Rica, which he has been engaged in explor- 

 ing for some time past, and takes occasion to point out the 

 fact that the highest peak in the country is not the Irazn, as 

 has been generally supposed, but the Pico-Bianco, which he 

 estimates at about 10,200 feet. From its summit lar<re ex- 

 tents of both the Atlantic and Pacific are readily visible. 



Geologically the Pico-Bianco is not a volcano, but a cul- 

 minating point of granite intrusion from below miocene 

 rocks. There is, however, a large mass of true volcanic rock 

 forming the apex, which, nevertheless, is only a dike laid bare 

 by denudation, and does not extend 300 feet below the sum- 

 mit. 4 D, November, 1874, 389. 



FALLING OF ATMOSPHERIC DUST IN NORWAY, MARCH 29 AND 



30, 1875. 



Professor Daubree communicates to the Academy of Sci- 

 ence, in Paris, notes upon certain atmospheric dust which fell 

 in Sweden and Norway in the nights of the 29th and 30th 

 of March, 1875. This was found scattered over the snow, 



L 



