. gembling flour, and is called Bergmehl, or mountain 
256 DISCOVERY OF A WHITE FOSSIL POWDER, 
returned to Colombo, by the mail-coach, after a most inter- 
esting and agreeable excursion, which we both enjoyed very. 
much, though I fear my account of it may appear tedious to 
you. Having been written by piecemeal, I had no idea it was 
so long; but I found I could not abridge it more, without. 
altering the style of it entirely. 
“I remain, my Dear Sir, 
© Yours faithfully, 
“A. W. WALKER. 
** July 6th, 1837.” 
XIV.—On a Wuite FossiL Pownrr, found under a bog in 
Lincolnshire, composed of the siliceous fragments of mi 
scopic parasitical Conrervæ.—By J. E. Bowman, Es 
F.L.S, &c., &c., &c. ^7 
[With a Figure, Tas. IX. B.] 
Ir is not much more than three years, since Professor 
Ehrenberg of Berlin astonished the scientific world by ti 
discovery of animalcules in a fossil state. In the course ^ 
his extensive investigations, he found that a soft stone, th 
Tripoli of commerce, long used as fine polishing powder 
consisted, almost entirely, of the siliceous skeletons of . 
_croscopic animals; which being perfectly preserved, may 
examined by the microscope, and compared with livin 
species, with some of which they are identical. This n 
or powder is found in such abundance in some countries 
that whole mountains are formed of it. He examined 5 ! 
mens from Sweden, from Bohemia, from Tuscany, and from 
the Isle of France, and ascertained it to be every where com- 
posed of countless myriads of the exuvize, or cases of minut 
infusorial animalcules: whole races and generations of which 
must have lived upon the spot when covered with water. I? 
. Sweden and Lapland, it is found ina pulverized state à 
of trees 
of scarcity, it is mixed up with grain and the b 
to make into bread, and is superstitiously consi 
