fll4 Scientific Notices^^Mineralogy, [Oct. 



gfay, and dove-coloured. Some of it has a fine grain ; other 

 specimens are coarsely granular and have a loose texture. It 

 Is not Uncommon for one side of a loose block to be flexible, 

 tvhile the other part is destitute of this property. It takes a 

 good polish, and appears to be carbonate of lime, and not a 

 magnesian carbonate. 



" It is well known that Dolomieu attributed the flexibility df 

 the marble he examined to its exsiccatioriy and that Bellevue 

 ascertained that %inelaHic marble might be made elastic by 

 exsiccation. The flexible marble of this county, however, loses 

 this property in part on becoming dri/. When it is made 

 thoroughly wet by the operation of sawing or of polishing, it 

 must b6 handled with great care to prevent its breaking, and 

 the large slabs of it cannot be raised with safety unless sup- 

 ported in'the middle as well as at the ends. The existence of this 

 property is doubtless dependent upon the same general causes 

 in marble as in other dense bodies. 



" From the extensive view of marble given in Rees' Cyclo- 

 paedia, flexible marble appears to be a rare mineral. One of the 

 specimens I have lately obtained is to be sent by the Austrian 

 Consul to the Imperial Cabinet of Vienna. As more speci- 

 mens may doubtless be obtained at a reasonable expense, I 

 would gladly aid those mineralogists who desire to procure spe- 

 cimens for their cabinets." — (American Journal of Science.) 



3< New and extraordinary Minerals discovered in Warwick^ 

 Orange County, New York. 



The following is an abstract from Dr. Samuel Fowler's paper, 

 in the American Journal of Science : — 



Every thing extraordinary in the valleys of Sparta, Franklin, 

 and Warwick, belongs to the formation of crystalline limestone, 

 which, perhaps, has no parallel in any other region of the world. 

 Even Arendel and Wroe are inferior in mineral riches to this 

 crystaUine calcareous valley. 



While recently exploring this formation, I made a discovery 

 in the township of Warwick, Orange county, N. Y. of minerals, 

 the most extraordinary for magnitude and beauty, which have 

 ever ye't come to notice. What will be thought of Spinelle 

 pleonasie, the side of one of whose bases measures three to four 

 mches, or twelve to sixteen inches in circumference? These 

 crystals are black and brilliant, sometimes aggregated, at other 

 times solitary ; at this locality seldom or ever less than the size 

 of a bullet. Some are partly alluvial, their matrix decompos- 

 ing, but when unaltered they are found associated with what 

 has never yet been described, namely, crystals of serpentine, 

 slightly rhomboidal prisms of a magnitude parallel with the 

 crystals of spinelle, often greenish and compact, at other times 

 tinged yellow by an admixture of brucite. 



These crystals bear not the smallest resemblance to the mar^ 



