E. MINERALOGY AND GEOLOGY. 197 



BLACK INCRUSTATION OF GRAY METEORITES. 



According to Meunier, the black incrustation or coating 

 with which gray meteorites are almost always clothed is due 

 principally, if not entirely, to the mechanical action of the 

 weather upon the body during its passage through the earth's 

 atmosphere. This movement, upon the one hand, produces 

 a sort of varnish or false enamel upon the exterior of the 

 mass, and, upon the other, a development of heat which causes 

 the black coloration the phenomenal fusion being only sec- 

 ondary in importance. Meunier has found similar black crusts 

 upon rocks that were evidently non-meteoric, and which he 

 ascribed to the same cause, namely, mechanical atmospheric 

 agency the difierence being that the crust is somewhat 

 thicker than is generally found upon meteoric stones: in one 

 case the friction of the air being very energetic and of short 

 duration, while in the other the reverse takes place. 21 A, 

 Fehruary, 1873, 14. 



ANTIQUITY OF THE GUADALOUPE BONE BRECCIA. 



In a communication byHamy upon the age of the so-called 

 anthropolites of Guadaloupe (or, in other words, certain hu- 

 man bones found imbedded in calcareous rock in that island), 

 we are informed that an antique object resembling a frog in 

 shape was found in connection with the bones, by which we 

 are entitled to assign to them a comparatively modern origin, 

 as being of the Carib race, and belonging to a people who 

 occupied the West Indies at the time of their first discovery 

 by Europeans, and afterward. 3 B^ February 20, 1873, 837. 



REMNANT OF THE ICE PERIOD IN SCOTLAND. 



Dr. Buchanan White believes he has found a remnant of 

 the ice time in Scotland. It consists in a small moth, Zygaca 

 xula7is^\\\\i(i\\ is entirely unknown upon the British Isles, but 

 of frequent occurrence in the Alps and in Scandinavia. This 

 induces Dr. White to consider it a trace of the ice time, while 

 others think it doubtful. 7 (7, viil,512. 



ACTUAL GLACIERS IN THE MERCED GROUP. 



Mr. John Muir, in the Overland Monthly^ announces the 

 existence of actual glaciers in the Merced group of California 



