NOTES AND CORRESPONDENCE. 
Bermuda Tripoli—tThis material is in great request among 
students of Diatomaceze, but its history requires to be cleared 
up. The general belief is that it was obtained from the 
Bermudas, and Ehrenberg states this in express terms; his 
sample, however, was received from the late Dr. Bailey, 
who himself speaks more cautiously. He mentions, in 
his account of this deposit, in ‘Silliman’s Journal,’ vol. 
xlviui, that he had received it from Mr. Tuomey; and that 
Mr. Tuomey had obtained it from a mimeral collector, as 
tripol, from Bermuda; but Dr. Bailey states that this 
tripol is not calcareous, whereas other fossil remains oc- 
curring in Bermuda Islands contain abundance of calcareous 
Polythalamia. He, therefore, when he distributed portions 
of the sample, added “locality doubtful.’ Although some 
of the diatoms in this deposit are peculiar to it, there are 
others which occur also in the Virginian and Maryland earths, 
a circumstance which indicates that 1t was more probably col- 
lected in the United States. The Richmond deposit, in- 
cluding that from Schuckoe Hill (on which part of the city 
of Richmond is built), is well known to be very extensive. 
Petersburgh, about twenty-six miles to the south, also yields 
diatomaceous earth scarcely differing from that of Richmond. 
Both these are elevated several feet above the level of the sea, 
although the earth be full of marine productions. 
On the north bank of the James River, where it begins to 
widen into an estuary or bay, is the plantation or “ hundred ” 
called Bermuda, about twenty miles below Richmond. It 
seems perfectly clear that, although unknown to Dr. Bailey, 
this is the place from whence the mineral collector had re- 
ceived the tripoli. The deposit may be more recent than 
those of Richmond and Petersburgh; and, if so, all the 
species of Heliopelta, for which it is celebrated, may yet be 
found recent along the shores of the estuary. The Bermuda 
in Virginia appears, then, to be the Bermuda of Diatomists, 
and is situated nearly in N. Lat. 37° 18’, and W. Long. 
76° 26’. The confusion seems to have arisen from Long 
Island, one of the Bermudas or Somer’s Islands, being 
also sometimes called Bermuda.—G. A. Warxker-ARNOTT?T, 
Glasgow. ) 
