Trans. N. V. Ac. Sci. 88 Feb. 12, 



flowed southward from Lake Erie and Northern Ohio. Many 

 were sluggish and became elongated peat-marshes. A submer- 

 gence of this area, and the deposit of gravel and sand upon the 

 marshes, would naturally produce such basin-like masses of coal. 



A paper was read by Mr. B. B. Chamberlin, with an exhibition 

 of a large number of specimens, on 



THE MINERALS OF THE WEEHAWKEN TUNNEL. 



(Abstract). 



The Palisade range, with its continuation southward, is a vast store- 

 house of minerals, increasing in quantity and quality with the depths 

 from which they are obtained. 



The question, " Why has the Weehawken tunnel yielded less plenti- 

 fully than the tunnels west of Hoboken ?" is partially explained by one 

 fact, that it does not lie as far beneath the surface of the ground as the 

 other tunnels, save in one portion of its course. 



This section, nearest the Hudson, embracing shafts numbers i and 2, 

 has proved fully as prohfic of mineral trophies as an equal space in the 

 tunnels below, where no less than six shafts in each received the atten- 

 tions of collectors of the prized zeolites. 



Most of the usual list of this class of minerals, obtamable in our 

 vicinity, appeared in greater or less quantity at Weehawken, a descrip- 

 tion of which is here given : 



Pectolite. — Weehawken tunnel has furnished science with perhaps 

 some of the finest crystalline forms yet discovered. 



A curious feature of much of the Weehawken pectolite consists in 

 the numerous clefts and fissures, as though made by a knife or saw, an 

 explanation of which is perhaps yet to be given. 



Datolite. — This mineral, so common in the other tunnels of the ridge, 

 here appears in very limited quantity. These few specimens are char- 

 acterized by great briUiancy and beauty. The color is a delicate green, 

 considerably lighter than usual in specimens from this vicinity. 



Analcime. — The specimens of analcime are quite showy as cabinet 

 specimens, and superior to those found elsewhere along the ridge. 



The crystals are rarely over half an inch in diameter, in color often 

 snow-white. Many present curious depressions on certain faces of the 

 crystals. 



Prehnite. — Much of the prehnite here found was intimately associ- 

 ated with an inferior quality of natrolite and pectolite, quite unattrac- 

 tive to a collector. Two or three small bits of green incrustation, some- 



