E. Billings on Prof. Heirs recent publication, 389 



not of air, which brings about the change. A smouldering heat 

 results from the various new combinations, which immediately take 

 place when the sulphur and other substances are set free. Similar 

 effects are often produced in mines where no coaly matter is pre- 

 sent, when substances capable of being decomposed by water are 

 heaped together. 



This explanation may suffice to explain in a general way not 

 only the production of the ochre beds from the decomposition of 

 pyrites, but also the flames, vapors, and pulsations and subsidence 

 of the ground. 



The deoxidation of the protoxide of iron dissolved in the water, 

 and its reconversion with the sulphuret through the agency of the 

 organic matter of the wood, is a highly interesting and instructive 

 fact, and throws much light on the origin not only of bog iron ores 

 but on the formation of mineral deposits in general. It affords a 

 striking illustration and coroboration of the theory now generally 

 received among chemical geelogists, that the origin of the metallic 

 sulphurets found so copiously in nature is due to a similar reac- 

 tion through the agency of organic matter on the soluble sulphates 

 contained in the primeval waters ; but on this point we cannot at 

 present enter. 



ART. XXXVl.—Eemarks upon Prof. HalVs recent publication, 

 entitled : " Contributions to Falceontolo^y." By E. Billings. 



I have this day (4th November, 1862) received by mail a pub- 

 lication by Professor James Hall of Albany, purporting to be a 

 continuation of Appendix C, of the Fifteenth Annual Report of 

 the Regents of the University of New York. 



On page 169 there is the following notice : 



" Twelfth Annual Report of the Regents on the State Cabinet. 



Tete first seventeen pages of the palajontological part of this Report 

 were printed and stereotyped in January and the early part of February, 

 1859 ; and nearly one hundred copies were distributed immediately 

 thereafter. The entire report was printed and published previous to the 

 20th September, 1859 ; and any person, procuring proof sheets from the 

 printer " in the beginning of the month of Jlugust," must have obtained 

 the sheets at least as far as page 56, which had been printed in the early 

 part of July. The proof sheets of the Tenth Report were in like manner 

 procured from the printer , as fast as issued. Similar practices have been 

 resorted to by interested parties, with respect to other reports ; proof- 



