260 DISCOVERY OF A WHITE FOSSIL POWDER. 
E. W. Binney of Manchester; though from his being unac- - 
quainted with the character and structure of the minute and — 
grotesque forms of the tribe of vegetables to which it owes its — 
origin, he was not fully aware of itsreal nature. He informs — 
me, that so long ago as 1836, being then on a visit in Lin- — | 
colnshire, he observed a whitish pulverulent substance on the — 
sides of a deep ditch, which he at first took to be lime, but —— 
on examination, finding it to be quite different in its pro- —— 
perties from that body, he supposed it to be of animal 
origin. The place where it was found, is a portion of a re- 
claimed peat-bog about four feet in thickness, lying on the 1 
Upper Red Marls, one mile east of the escarpment of Lias — 
limestone, in the valley of the Trent in Blyton Car, pu 
Gainsborough. The peat was in a high state of decomposi- 
tion, and had been under cultivation for some years. The 
white substance in question, had been thrown out in widen- 
ing the ditch, and originally occupied a bed varying in thick- — 
ness from four to six inches, at the depth of about a foot 
under the surface of the peat, and extending over an area of f 
several acres of land. 
In some places, the powder was mixed with portions of | 
peat; but in others it was quite free from such admixture. 
When first dug up, it was of a yellowish colour, and in d 
state of paste; but on becoming dry, it changed to a beauti- 
ful white powder, that floated in the atmosphere on the 
slightest agitation, was tasteless, and bore a great resemblance 
to calcined carbonate of magnesia. Conceiving that it might 
be fatty matter in astate of adipocire, he successively treated 
it with sulphuric, hydrochloric, and nitric acids, and after- 
wards submitted it to the action of heat, by all which pro- 
cesses it remained unchanged; and he was thence led to be- 
lieve it was silica in an extremely minute state of subdivision. 
. He had subsequently subjected it, under the action of the = 
|. blowpipe, to an intense white heat for fifteen minutes, and he - 
2 had treated it with the carbonates of potash and of soda, and : 
. thus formed silicates of these substances. He afterwards 
~ learned that a similar substance was found in considerable 
