70 



This stone is a variety of turquoise, and the locality is the only 

 one known in America. At Fort Defiance the Navajo Indians 

 bring in rolled fragments of garnets, perfectly clear and trans- 

 parent and of a most beautiful color, fully equal if not superior 

 to those from Bohemia. Some of them are very large, and of 

 considerable value. Beautiful chrysolites have also been ob- 

 tained there ; several specimens were shown to me in Santa Fe. 

 Diamonds have been reported, but as yet there is no good reason 

 to credit the statement. 



It will thus be seen that the mineral resources of the Rocky 

 Mountain region are extensive and of a character to render it in 

 a great measure independent of distant sections of the country. 

 Its rapid settlement and the explorations which must result from 

 the great emigration to the newly discovered placers, will not fail 

 to bring to light many new localities of valuable minerals, and 

 thus hasten the organization of a new and powerful State. 



Dr. Jackson observed, that the most natural geological 

 route for a railroad to the Pacific, seemed to him from 

 New Orleans by Texas and New Spain to Mazatlan ; 

 a great part of the Atlantic portion from Portland to 

 New Orleans is already built ; in Mexico and New 

 Spain there is a great extent of level table-land, — such a 

 route, along the coast of the Atlantic and the Gulf of 

 Mexico, would be the shortest and most direct, not only 

 from New England but from the region of the great 

 lakes. . • 



Dr. Jackson announced the decease of the celebrated 

 and venerable Alexander Von Humboldt, at Berlin, in 

 his ninetieth year. He alluded to the principal events of 

 his life and of his scientific career ; to his exact and ex- 

 tensive knowledge in every department of natural sci- 

 ence ; to his travels, in which he collected a vast amount 

 of specimens and accumulated a mass of facts, which he 

 arranged in the best possible manner from his compre- 

 hensive knowledge of natural science. His industry was 

 untiring, and his information on general subjects of 



