60 REPORT — 1856. 



at will. By applying gas-fuel to a reverberatory furnace, and blowing in air by pipes 

 over the bridge, a true blowpipe flame is obtained, by which the highest heat possible 

 is attained, and also by the regulation of the wind the atmosphere of the furnace 

 may be kept either neutral, oxidizing or reducing at will. With such a furnace 

 Dr. Gurlt hopes to melt steel in large quantity without injury to its quality. The gas 

 is obtained by burning the fuel in a close deep fire-box by means of a blast of air at 

 the bottom. 



On the Use of the Gramme in Chemistry. By Henry Wright. 



GEOLOGY. 



On Gold in India. By Lieut. Ayton, Bombay Artillery. 



On Fossils from the Crimea. By William H. Baily, Geological Survey of 



Great Britain. 

 The fossils which formed the subject of this communication belong, with one ex- 

 ception, to the [nvertebrata, and were principally collected in the southern part of the 

 Crimea, by Captain C. F. Cockburn, of the Royal Artillery. They comprise a series 

 from the Monastery of St. George and gorge of Iphigenia, consisting of fossils from 

 the Jurassic and oldest deposits ; also others from the tertiaries resting immediately 

 upon them ; and from the volcanic or eruptive rocks which have disturbed and broken 

 up some of these strata, together with a set of well-preserved newer tertiary Mollusca 

 from the Quarantine Harbour. The Museum of Practical Geology has also received 

 from Major Cooke, of the Royal Engineers, a suite of somewhat similar forms of 

 Steppe limestone fossils from the Redan, and near the dockyard of Sevastopol, and 

 some interesting Jurassic Brachiopoda from Balaklava. It possesses also from Lieu- 

 tenant-Colonel Munro, and Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Lygon Cocks, of the Cold- 

 stream Guards, other specimens of the Steppe limestone containing fossils, obtained 

 from the ground before Sevastopol, upon which the allied armies were encamped, and 

 volcanic and mineral specimens from the sea-coast. 



These instructive collections, including a series of fossils from the various strata of 

 the Crimea, formerly presented by the Imperial School of Mines at St. Petersburgh, 

 enable us to add to the published lists of fossils from that country seventy-four 

 species. 



The geology of this peninsula having been described in detail by M. Du Bois de 

 Montpereux, M. Huot in the work of Demidoff, M. Hommaire de Hell, and by Sir 

 R. I. Murchison and M. de Verneuil in the ' Geology of Russia and the Ural Moun- 

 tains,' a slight sketch of the formations represented in that country only is necessary 

 before proceeding to the remarks upon the fossils. 



The most ancient deposits of the Crimea are those at the base of the Jurassic for- 

 mation, described as black schists, composed of hard, soft, and ferruginous beds, which 

 are probably equivalent to the Trias, or New Red Sandstone appearing in the Valley 

 of Baidar and other localities, and on the coast, where they are superimposed by the 

 Lias. Overlying the schists of the Lias are the Jurassic rocks, which extend along the 

 southern sea-coast from Balaklava to the vicinity of Theodosia or KafFa, a length of 

 about 100 miles. This mountain-chain of hard and crystalline limestones, pierced 

 and broken into by volcanic eruptions of greenstone, porphyry, &c., is, with its asso- 

 ciated strata, analogous to that of the Caucasus, and proceeds in a direction E.N.E. to 

 S.S.W., its highest point being the Tchatir Dagh or Tent Mountain, of an elevation 

 of 5135 feet. The Bay of Balaklava Is enclosed on both sides by steep and rugged 

 rocks of the Jurassic formation, composed of compact red and grey limestones, in 

 which are clefts filled with a reddish clay. These limestones and clays contain nume- 

 rous organic remains, the most abundant of which are corals and Encrinital joints. 



At the foot of the chain towards the north, the lower division of the Cretaceous 

 series, or " Ncocomien," may be well observed, its horizontal beds resting unconform- 



