E. MINERALOGY AND GEOLOGY. 209 



opportunity of thoroughly acquainting himself with the mat- 

 ter, has quite recently devoted an article to the statistics of 

 this interesting subject. From this the information is obtain- 

 ed that the town of Fredonia, New York, has been for more 

 than forty years partially lighted by gas which issues from 

 the earth near that place. The gas Avhich issues from the 

 salt wells of the Kanawha Valley has been long utilized to 

 supply the heat employed in the evaporation of the brine. 

 It is noteworthy that, in many localities where its occurrence 

 had formerly been looked upon as inconvenient and even ob- 

 jectionable, its value as a heating or lighting object is now 

 properly appreciated, and that in several instances borings 

 have been instituted with the especial object of obtaining it. 

 Many other instances of the present or prospective utilization 

 of these natural gas springs are named in the article in ques- 

 tion. Of these, it is of interest to note the occurrence of a 

 gas w^ell at West Bloomfield, New York, wdiich delivers, ac- 

 cording to Professor Henry Wurtz' estimate, some fifteen cu- 

 bit feet per second, and which it is proposed to conduct to 

 the city of Rochester, some twenty miles distant, for the 

 purpose of utilizing it for industrial purposes. 



METEOKIC DUST IN SXOW. 



A communication was lately made to the Paris Academy 

 of Sciences by Professor Nordenskjold upon the occurrence of 

 a carbonaceous powder mingled with fine particles of metallic 

 iron, which he has observed in the snow of various reirions of 

 Northern Europe, and more recently at Mossel Bay, in Spitz- 

 bergen. In December of 1871 an unusually heavy fall of 

 snow took place at Stockholm, and, to his surprise, he ob- 

 served that the snow wdiich fell toward the end of the storm 

 was blackened as with soot, and when examined w^as found to 

 consist of the above-mentioned substance. 



Thinking it possible that this might have resulted from the 

 smoke of some factory or burning forest, the Professor re- 

 quested his brother, who was living in the interior of Finland, 

 to examine into the subject, and he also succeeded in obtain- 

 ing a similar substance. Still more remarkable, however, was 

 his detection of it in Spitzbergen, w^here human agencies could 

 not by any possibility be taken into the account ; and he is 

 therefore of the opinion that it must be meteoric in its. origin, 



