Report on a re-examination, §c. 363 
papers mention that at Charleston, S. C., at 10 o’clock, P. M. of. 
the 20th, a fire-ball of great splendor was seen in the North. 
The details above given lead to the conclusion, that no unusual 
display of meteors was visible in this country on the mornings of 
the 19th or 20th: April, 1839. It is to be regretted that no thor- 
ough observation was made on the mornings of the 21st and 22d. 
It deserves to be mentioned, that the meteoric shower of April, 
1803, is by European writers, almost universally referred to the 
twenty-second day of the month. ‘The documents which I have 
quoted, compel the belief that the true date is the twentieth. The 
only ground for suspicion concerning it, is the apparent failure 
on this day, for two successive years, of any recurrence of the 
shower, 
Arr. XII.— Notice of a Report on a re-examination of the Eco- 
nomical G'eology of Massachusetts ; by Epwarp Hircucocs, 
Professor of Chemistry and Natural History in Amherst Col- 
lege. Boston, 1838. 
Communicated by Professor C. U. Suzparp, at the request of the Editors, 
Tue objects aimed at in the undertaking, were Ist, the collec- 
tion and analysis of soils, with a view to their amelioration on 
chemical principles; 2nd, the discovery of coal, marl and ores ; 
3rd, a more accurate determination of the boundaries to the vari- 
us rock formations ; 4th the scientific geology, and lastly to pro- 
cure additional specimens for the illustration of the geology and 
Mineralogy of the State. 
rof. Hrrcncock confines himself however, in the present re- 
port pretty nearly to the first and second topics above enumer- 
ated, and dwells particularly upon those developements of valu- 
able materials within the commonwealth, which have been ef- 
fected since the publication of his earlier reports. 
As a preliminary to the consideration of soils, he classifies the 
different kinds observed as follows : 
l. Alluvium from rivers, do. peaty; 2. Tertiary soil, do. 
Sandy ; 3. sandstone soil, red, do. gray; 4. Graywacke soil, con- 
glomerate, do. slaty gray, do. slaty red; 5. Clay slate soil; 6. 
imestone soil, magnesian, do. common; 7. Mica slate soil; 8. 
