1890.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 153 



the Sociedad Minera, Republicana Argentina, from the mines of 

 Oandecara, showing magnificent specimens of auriferous quartz 

 containing cavities filled with free gold. 



The Brazilian Commission exhibited a very interesting col- 

 lection of the precious stones of Brazil, especially the diamond 

 and its associations, but not such fine examples as those shown at 

 our Centennial Exposition. Many of the choice specimens in this 

 exhibit were loaned by European collectors and dealers. Among 

 those of chief interest were a dish of yellow topaz crystals, sev- 

 eral of them over two inches in length and one inch in diameter ; 

 magnificent crystals of green tourmaline from two-and-a-half 

 to four inches long ; fragments of crystals of amethyst two and 

 three inches in diameter ; diamond crystals from less than the 

 size of a pin-head up to six carats. There was also a collection 

 of minerals associated with the diamond in Brazil, consisting of 

 rutile, zircon, anafase, lazulite, and a set in miniature of the 

 implements and bowls used in washing and in digging and 

 ■working the river gravels. This entire case was the production 

 of the province of Minas. Of special interest were the "Sables 

 Diamantiferes," as the conglomerate rock containing the dia- 

 mond is called, and also the masses of klaprothine, identical with 

 the lazulite of Georgia, and the series of minerals of the gravels 

 which were identified by Prof. Gorceix, of the School of Mines 

 at Oura Preta, among which were pyrope, cyanite, pyrite, fibro- 

 lite, xenotime, anatase, hematite, limonite, tourmaline, mona- 

 zite, baierite (titanic iron), and itacolumite rock. These are 

 especially interesting since they have all been found in North 

 Carolina and Georgia. The Viscountess de Cavalacantie exhibited 

 a case of jewels from the province of Minas. among which were 

 some fine amethysts, topazes, aquamarines, citrines, and five 

 beautiful examples of the chrysoberyl or chrysolite jewelry worn 

 and made in the latter part of the eighteenth century. 



Among a remarkable series of ornaments made and worn by 

 the Botocudo Indians of Brazil were some made of materials of 

 marked mineralogical interest. The most notable were lip-orna- 

 ments, one a rich Amazon-green feldspar in the form of a disc, 

 two-and-a-half inches in diameter and about one inch thick, with 

 projecting shoulders for retaining the ornament in the lip. The 

 great breadth of this would suggest difficulty in the use of a pipe, 

 but Dr. Ladislaus Natto, Director of the National Museum, Rio 

 de Janeij-o, exhibited a pipe used by the Indians, adapted to 

 overcome this difficulty. The stem was fiat and over two inches 

 in diameter and quite thin, so that it could be laid on the pro- 

 jecting lip-ornament and easily held in the mouth. Another 

 lip-ornament was three inches long and an inch-and-a-half wide ; 

 a.nother an oval disc three-and-a-half inches long and one inch 



