146 Mr. Gardner on tfie Existence of Chalk in Brazil, 



1 have tried this process during the greater part of last summer with 

 invariable success, and, a butcher, who also tried it on a larger scale 

 in his stall, was equally convinced of its efficacy. The meat, when 

 cooked, has not the slightest smell or taste of creasote. 



There is also another advantage attending the use of creasote. Its 

 smell is so disagreeable to flies that it effectually frees a larder from 

 the presence of these noxious insects. The same quantity of creasote 

 may be used for several weeks, but on being long exposed to the air it 

 loses most of its smell, and is partly changed into a species of resin. 



Creasote is not a simple proximate principle, as has been supposed, 

 but consists of a mixture of empyreumatic oils, having different boiling 

 points, and containing quantities of carbon, which, from some experi- 

 ments which I have made, vary so much as from three to four per 

 cent. 



XXXVI. — On the Existence of an Immense Deposit of Chalk in the 

 Northern Provinces of Brazil. By George Gardner, Esq., F.L.S. 



It is well known that the greatest deposit of chalk we have hitherto 

 been acquainted with, is that which is spread over the south-eastern 

 and eastern counties of England, and a large extent of country in the 

 northern parts of France. In Germany and the north of Europe 

 deposits of this formation also occur. No chalk is found in Scotland 

 or Wales, but in Ireland a large detached tract lies under the basalt 

 of Antrim. We have no account, so far as I am aware, of chalk 

 having been found in Africa, India, or Australia. The continent of 

 North America has now been traversed in almost every direction, both 

 by American and European naturalists. The geological structure of 

 its northern parts has been carefully examined by our arctic voyagers 

 and travellers. Humboldt devoted much attention to that of its 

 southern extremity — Mexico ; and much of the intermediate portions 

 have been examined by Dr. Morton and other geologists of the United 

 States ; — but nothing like chalk with its accompanying flints have 

 hitherto been discovered. The nearest approach to the chalk-forma- 

 tion is that which has been described by Dr. Morton as existing in 

 New Jersey, and which there is every reason to believe is equivalent 

 to the lower or green sand beds af that deposit. Dr. Morton has 

 named this " The Ferruginous Sand Formation'' of the United States, 

 and describes it as occupying " a great part of the triangular peninsula 

 of New Jersey, formed by the Atlantic and the Delaware and Raritan 

 rivers, and extending across the state of Delaware from near Delaware 

 City to the Chesapeak ; appearing again near Annapolis, in Maryland ; 

 at Lynch's Creek, in South Carolina ; at Cockspur Island, in Georgia ; 

 and several places in Alabama, Florida, <fec." As a whole, this deposit 

 varies considerably in its mineralogical character ; most frequently 

 presenting itself in minute friable grains, with a dull blueish or greenish 



