114 Chronicles of Science. [Jan., 
iron and lime in variable proportions, the one substituting the 
other in a very uncertain manner. The composition of the mineral 
cannot indeed be determined until more exact analyses shall have 
been made. 
The discovery of a mineral resembling the celebrated Bog Head 
coal in New South Wales, and the manufacture of paraffine oil 
from it, is now exciting much attention in the Australian colonies. 
A colonial paper* states that this mineral is found near Hartley, 
and also near Wollongong. ‘The seam near Hartley is five-and- 
a-half feet in thickness, and is worked through a tunnel. This 
mineral is of a dark-brownish colour; it is very tough, so that if 
struck with a hammer the implement will bound off as it would 
from a block of wood; it has a conchoidal fracture, and does not 
powder when broken. This Hartley mineral is stated to be superior 
to the Bog Head coal, in consequence of its yielding a larger 
quantity of gas, and therefore of oil, and also of its freeness from 
sulphur. The importation of paraffine oil into Australia is large, 
and it is confidently believed that the oil can now be produced at a 
lower price in the colony than it can be imported from America. 
“On the Growth of Flos Ferri, or Corolloidal Arragonite,” is 
the title of a paper by Mr. W. Wallace, of the Silver Band and 
Dufton Mines, well known by his work on ‘ Metalliferous Deposits 
of Alston Moor, which was read before the Geological Society 
of London, and is published in the November number of their 
journal.t 
It is not possible to condense Mr. Wallace’s views. It may be 
briefly stated that he considers the growth of arragonite to be from 
within and not from without as has been usually thought. 
“ Arragonite growing in an atmosphere may be considered a type 
of vegetation, the forms of which it more especially mimics.” 
Dr. Gustay Tschermak has published “ Chemico-Mineralogical 
Researches on the Felspars.” { The author believes that with the 
exception of Hyalophane and Dauburite, all the Felspars may be 
resolved into mixtures of three true species or genera as he terms 
them, namely, those known in the pure state as Adularia, Albite, 
and Anorthite, Soda, and Lime Felspars. The potash Felspars he 
considers to be the result of regular alternations of Orthoclase with 
Albite ; and the other Felspars to be isomorphous mixtures of Albite 
with Anorthite, sometimes with small quantities of Orthoclase. 
Oligoclase ; Andesine,and Labradorite appear to be merely members 
of a great series in which many transition forms occur.§ 
* «Sydney Herald and Sydney Mail.’ 
+ ‘Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society,’ No. 84, p 413. 
+ *Chemisch-Mincralogische Studien. Won Dr. Gustav Tschermak. 
§ *The Journal of the Ciemical Society,’ October, 1865, 
