23 
first experiments in this process had been made by Mr. Sie- 
mens, at Trenton, N. J., while residing temporarily in this 
country. 
Dr. H. C. Bourton described some points in chemical 
manipulation, lately introduced into the laboratories of the 
School of Mines. He exhibited a knife of Wootz steel, for 
cutting glass tubing, in every way superior to a file. He 
described the battery of water-baths, as used at the School of 
Mines, exhibiting drawings and portions of the apparatus 
itself. He also mentioned a simple apparatus for hastening 
filtration. 
May 19th. Geological Section. 
President Newberry in the chair. Sixteen persons present. 
The PRESIDENT exhibited a specimen of chrysolite, (called 
also peridot) from Arizona, which he had had cut and 
polished into a very clear and beautiful gem. These chryso- 
lites occur, with pyropes (Bohemian garnets), quite widely 
distributed through portions of Arizona and New Mexico, as 
rolled specimens, probably derived from the conglomerate 
which forms the lowest member of the Trias of that region ; 
and thence washed out and scattered along the beds of 
streams, in old gravels, ete. 
He also showed a series of plates now preparing for the 
forthcoming volume on fossil plants, in the series of reports 
of the U. S. Geological Survey of the Territories. Those 
exhibited were illustrations of the Miocene flora of North 
America. He remarked upon the great development of 
angiospermous plants and trees in the vast Miocene lake 
regions of what are now the Great Basin and the Plains, and 
especially upon its far northern extension. This rich and 
abundant vegetation, presenting the clear evidence of a 
climate not colder than warm-temperate, spread northward 
over Alaska, Greenland, Spitzbergen, and Northern Europe; 
between all which points it is plain that a land connection 
