278 Scientific Intelligence. 
_ two necessary ingredients for bones and other animal matters. ~ Such 
a rock, he observes, can hardly fail to be useful as a manure, if found 
in an accessible locality ; and it would be worth the while for geolo- 
gists to search for veins of this mineral in the older formations of this 
and other countries. i 
21. Fresh-water Formation of the Smyrna Harbor, (Quart. Jour. 
Geol. Soc., No. 2, p. 162.)—From the examination of fossils, Mr. E. 
Forbes has ascertained that the great fresh-water formation which skirts 
the Gulf of Smyrna and the coasts of many islands in the neighboring 
portion of the Archipelago, is of the age of the Paris basin and London 
clay. Whether the fresh-water tertiary basins of the interior of Asia. 
Minor, and of the valley of the Kanthus, and the islands of Cos and — 
Rhodes, are of the same age or not, remains still doubtful; though ; 
from the numerous fossils examined, Mr. Forbes is inclined to pro- 
nounce them of a later origin, yet anterior to the pliocene marine for- a 
mations of Asia Minor and the Sporades. Of the fossils from Smyrna, 
one is the Limneus longiscatus of the Paris basin, and another appa- 
rently the L. ventricosus, also a Paris basin shell. Three species of : 
_. also are closely allied to, if not identical with, Paris basin 
ossil 
s. 
22. Geology of New South Wales, New Holland and Van Dieman’s 
Land, (Srrzeiecxi’s New South Wales.)—The stratified rocks of 
New South Wales and New Holland, from the mica slate upward reach 
only to the variegated sandstone, which rock rests on the coal deposits. 
The whole thickness does not exceed 2200 feet, of which 1400 feet 
consist of sandstone alone. The crystalline and sedimentary rocks of 
New South Wales bear to one another the proportion of 3 to 1, and the 
former include granite, protogen, quartz rock, syenite, eurite, POF 
phyry, greenstone and basalt. The coal of New Holland is bitumin- 
ous and constitutes a series of beds 2 to 5 feet thick, alternating with 
sandstone and a soft clayey shale. The principal deposits are those of 
the Hunter River valley, which is worked at New Castle at the mouth 
of the river, and that of the district of Illawarra. Numerous fossil 
plants are found with the coal, among which the Glossopteris Browniana 
is by far the most prevalent form. Below the coal lie deposits of sand- 
stone and limestones, which often abound in fossils. | 
; 23. Salt Lakes and Coal Beds of Cape Breton ; from an account of 
‘its geology by Ricnarp Brown, Esq., (Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc., No- 2, 
1845, p. 207.)—The island of Cape Breton is separated from Nova 
Scotia by the Gut of Canso, and is about 120/miles long from north to 
south, and 90 miles wide. A line of highlands commencing at Cape 
North continues 60 miles to St. Ann’s on the east shore, and as far.to 
‘Margarie on the west shore, presenting with few exceptions bold cliffs 
