242 ANNUAL KECOED OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



and was obtained by melting and evaporating the latter. 

 The first impression on examining the dust was that it had 

 a meteoric origin, representing a condition not unfrequently 

 observed in the atmosphere. Careful investigation, however, 

 finally induced the belief that this was a volcanic phenome- 

 non, the dust being possibly derived from some eruption in 

 Iceland. Professor Daubree, in remarking upon the great 

 distance to which volcanic and other ashes may be trans- 

 ported, states that a certain dry fog which covered nearly 

 the whole of Europe, in 1783, was due to a volcanic eruption 

 in Iceland; and that ashes from the Chicago fire fell on the 

 Azores on the fourth day after that catastrophe. These gave 

 out an empyreumatic odor, which induced the suggestion, at 

 the time, that some great forest on the American continent 

 must be on fire. 6 B> April 19, 1875, 995. 



COAL IX THE STEAIT OF MAGELLAN. 



An important discovery, if correctly represented, has late- 

 ly been made in the opening of a rich coal-mine in the south- 

 ern part of Patagonia, near Brunswick Island, in the Strait 

 of Magellan, in the locality known as Captain Corey's Ranch, 

 near the Chilian colony of Punta Arenas, in latitude 53 9' 

 S. and longitude 73 13' W. The property referred to has 

 been granted by the Chilian government to three French ex- 

 plorers, Messrs. Bouquet, Derue, and Suzainecourt. There 

 are three distinct beds of the coal, of which one is about 300 

 feet above the level of the sea, of a minimum thickness of 

 about 6-J feet. The second is from five to six feet in thick- 

 ness, and is about 170 feet above the first. The third is about 

 130 feet above the second, with a thickness of 10 feet, divided 

 into three nearly square layers, and separated by thin strata 

 of slate. In view of the large number of steam-vessels an- 

 nually traversing the Strait of Magellan, an unlimited sup- 

 ply of good coal in that locality is a matter of very great im- 

 portance. 1 B, October 11, 1874, 17. 



TIN IN NEW SOUTH WALES. 



The tin-bearing country in New South Wales, of which so 

 much was said a few years ago, still continues to be note- 

 worthy for tjie extent and value of the take of this valuable 

 metal. The amount raised in Inversall, which is but a small 



