454 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [DeC. 



parts of the range. Thus, above the main bed and somewhit 

 separate from it, I met with thin layers of common mica-schist, 

 alternating with layers of mica-schist more or less impregnated 

 with bitumen. Silvery laminae of mica also form thin seams in 

 the main bed. With regard to the gneiss, on the other hand, 

 occasionally in the black bituminous rock one meets with some- 

 what paler stripes and seams, showing that feldspar here forms 

 the principal constituent of the mass. The stratification is, how- 

 ever, distinct enough to show that it is not a dike, but stratified 

 gneiss and mica-scliist, conformable to the surrounding parts we 

 here see before us. In some places the bituminous rock contains 

 round, whitish, thinly interspersed particles of the size of a pea, 

 as well as nodules of anthracite of about the same size. As I 

 at first supposed the latter to be asphalt, I concluded, that the 

 whole bed was impregnated with that substance ; when, however, 

 these nodules afterwards were proved, by experiments, to be 

 anthracite, that supposition lost its foundation and yet 1 cannot 

 decide what kind of bituminous substance it is, that to so large 

 an extent impregnates the rock. It seems nevertheless to be fully 

 decided, that the impregnation is analogous to that in alum-slate, 

 for instance, and that consequently our gneiss and mica schist 

 must be removed from the phice they occupy as "primitive 

 rocks," to the series of sedimentary and fossilferuus strata, as 

 limestone, alum-slate, &c. 



2. Note on the Mineral Character of the Rock. 



By a. E. NORDENSKIOLD. 



There are at Nullaberg two kinds of bituminous rocks, viz : 



a) a rock of a schistose structure, abounding in mica. 



6) a rock almost devoid of mica, and showing but slight 

 appearance of layers in the arrangement of its inj.'i-edii3nts. 



As Mr. Igelstr6m shows, these rocks alternate in p.irallel beds, 

 with common mica-schist, gneiss, and hyperite. The principal 

 ingredients are, in h — greyish white orthoclase, in a — greyish- 

 white orthoclase and silver-white mica ; in both mingled with 

 variable portions of a black carbonaceous or coal-like sub.stauce. 

 No quartz is to be discovered. When the mica prevails and the 

 rock contains less of the carbonaceous sub.stance, it has such a 

 striking resemblance to ordinary mica-schist, that even the ablest 

 geologist would mistake it for this common rock, and I should 



