1825.] Prof. Remoick on Torrelite. 217 



wholly dependent on solar influence. The glaciers descend the 

 mountains ; and regions which were green with vegetation, and 

 inhabited, are now wholly frozen and deserted. The reflections 

 to which this leads would be entirely out of place. My object 

 has been merely to throw together a collection of remarkable 

 facts in geology,\vhich it appeared to me tobe time to generalize, so 

 as to become more intelligible, and as elucidating each other. 

 How far I have succeeded must be left to the decisions of those 

 competent judges who peruse your journal, and whose remarks 

 and criticisms I shall receive with pleasure. 



Article VIII. 



Examination of a Mineral from Sussex County, New-Jersey. 

 By Prof. Renwick.* 



The substance in question exists intimately connected with, 

 and disseminated through the ore of the Andover mine ; an ore 

 that was at one period famous for producing the best iron in 

 North America, and the only kind from which steel has been 

 successfully manufactured. 



This ore appears, at the first glance, to be composed of three 

 very distinct substances. The first is intermediate in appearance 

 between granular Franklinite and large-grained magnetic iron 

 ore : on a cursory examination, it seems to be a protoxide of 

 iron with a slight trace of zinc. The second is an amorphous 

 quartz, tinged with a colour varying from a pale rose colour to a 

 deep Vermillion. The third is of a dull verniillion red, and of a 

 granular fracture ; in some specimens fine, in others coarse- 

 grained. This last was chosen as the subject of examination; it 

 is hard enough to scratch glass ; its powder is rose red ; it 

 slightly affects the magnet ; and it effervesces with acids. It 

 had been supposed to be a red oxide of zinc. My first experi- 

 ments showed that it had no analogy with that substance, and 

 it having been subjected to the action of the blowpipe by Dr. 

 Torrey, he inferred that it contains cerium, as it formed with 

 borax a glass that was green while hot, but lost its colour on 

 cooling. Exposed alone to the blowpipe, it is infusible. 



To ascertain its nature, it was subjected to the following pre- 

 liminary process : 



A. 



(1.) A small portion was separated, and reduced to fine pow- 

 der in a steel dish. In this state it was acted upon with violent 

 effervescence by nitro-niuriatic and muriatic acids ; giving with 

 the latter the pecuUar smell of hydrogen. The action ceased in 



• Annals of the Lyceum of Natural History, New York. 



