318 Geological CoUectiwis, 



3. A thick bed of gray compact limestone, which assumes the aspect of a 

 false breccia, owing to a multitude of deeper coloured portions, and to little 

 veins of cinnabar. This vein varies in thickness from 5 to 30 feet, and 

 both its upper and its under surface yield cinnabar. 



4. Below some sandy brownish black limestones the marly schist re- 

 iqE^penrs, mixed with anthracite, and containing mercury. It is called sUber- 

 schieffer by the miners, who are so unskilful as to lose a great part of the 

 fluid ntetal. These marls contain also calcareous masses, and, particularly 

 ©n the under part, very rich nodules of cinnabar. 



5. Tiiis is followed by a calcareous marl, and by a second thick bed of 

 brecciform limestone, containing little veins of cinnabar. 



6. This black bed rests upon a marly black sandstone, the black metalli- 

 ferous and other marls followed by a compact brecciform limestone. 



7. The whole rests on magnesian rocks, rent and bleached, similar to 

 those of Baden in Austria. 



Lastly, a few leagues from Idria, the valley of Polanschiza presents red 

 sandstones, and non-porphyritic conglomerates, which alternate with lime- 

 Stones, resembling these last, and probably support the whole deposit of 

 Idria. 



The mercury of Idria therefore is found in a transition schist, and in similar 

 schists are found the cinnabar of Larbuch, of Dombrawa in Transylvania, 

 and of Szlana in Hungary, and the mercury of Schwartzleogang, of Salfen- 

 bei"g near Brixen, and of Schmidtenthal in the Pinzgau. The cinnabar 

 sandstone of the Alpine limestone of Malachau in Hungary will have the 

 same position.^ — Journal de Geologic, II. No. 5. 



^ Gold Mines in the Uralian Mountains. — The produce of the Ural mines 

 amounted, in 1827, to ^651,420; in 1828, to .£672,416. Gold is also 

 found in the Rhine ; but the quantity is so scanty, that the washer considers 

 it a good day's work, if he succeed in collecting to the value of five or six 

 shillings. From the official accounts of the yearly produce obtained from 

 that stream in the Grand Duchy of Baden, we observe that the value was> 

 in 1821-2, ^603; 1826-7, ^808; 1827-8, ^943. The last produce, 

 small as it may appear, for it scarcely exceeded 17 pounds in weight, shewed 

 so considerable an increase upon preceding years, that a great impulse was 

 given to this branch of industry in Baden, and the harvest has become still 

 more productive. — Ed. New Phil Jour. April, 1831. 



Diamond in the Coal Formation. — The diamond is said to have been 

 found in the coal formation in India. — Ibid. 



^Splendid Specimen of Megatherium. — A perfect skeletoft ot the megathe- 

 from, exceeding, in size the splendid specimen ptesefved in the Cabinet of 

 Natural History in Madrid, has been lately discovered 126 miles south of 

 Buenos Ayrfes. This remarkable specimen of antediluvian zoology is nov^ 

 in the possession of Woodbine Parish, Esq. Consul- General at Buenos 

 Ayres, who intends to bring it with him to Europe. -^ Ibid. 



Fossil Oxen of Russia Professor Fischer of Moscow has described two 



new species of fossil oxen from Siberia. The Bos latifrons, with a large 

 forehead, horns straight at the base, jmlate much dilated ; and the Bos cana- 

 liculalns, having horns very close together at their base, and separated by a 

 straight deep channel — Jour, de Geol. II. No. 7. 



Immense quantify of Fossil Bones in Siberia. — M. Hendestrom, who was 

 appointed, in 1808, by the Russian government to visit the coasts of the 

 Icy Sea, from the Lena to the Colyma, states, that he has seen in the ice 

 thousands of mammoths, rhinoceroses, buffalos, and other fossil animals. — 

 Ibid. 



