Serentific Intelligence: 197 
that it seemed as if they had‘been previously formed and imbedded 
in the ore, while it was soft or in a state of fusion. 
The crystals of zircon were of a deep brownish red color, some of 
them translucent and of a metallic or bronze lustre: those on the sur- 
face, exposed to the atmosphere, were extremely friable or brittle, but 
the interior showed perfect well defined crystals of all sizes, from those 
that were excessively small to others of the dimensions of one inch in 
length and one fourth of an inch at each side of the plane of the crys- 
tals, which were uniformly a four sided prism, terminated at each ex- 
tremity by pyramids, with additional faces on their edges or angles ; 
precisely similar to those found near Trenton and at Schooley’s Moun- 
tain, described in Cleaveland’s Mineralogy, page 298 and illustrated 
in plate iii. fig. 38 and 39. Iam in possession of one crystal of this 
form, the length of which is more than one inch, and the sides of the 
prism one third of an inch in diameter. It is not unfrequent also to 
find zircon, in the same specimen, massive and in round grains. 
It appears from the above description, that there is nothing Pecu- 
liar in the character of the zireon- found. in. this locality, or in the 
form of its crystallization: it only adds another geological situation 
to those described by former mineralogists. ‘The occurrence of zir- 
con in the United States is not uncommon: in almost every other 
instance I have seen it imbedded in primitive rocks, such as granite 
or sienite, and particularly in that species of sienite with a green 
colored felspar, but I have never heard before of its having been 
noticed in primitive iron ore. The only deviation from its usual geo- 
logical situation which I have observed, except in this instance, is at 
Easton in Pennsylvania, where zircon has been found, by Dr. Swift, 
in large and beautiful crystals, imbedded in steatite or tale, of so soft 
a nature that the crystals can be completely developed, by separating 
the steatite with the point of a pen knife. : . 
6. Geology.—In the gulf of Bengal, an island has lately been 
formed, by the accumulation of the alluvial matter, brought down by 
the waters which empty into this bay. This island was discovered 
im the year 1806, together with the channel, by a boat which was 
bound to St. Gur. It increases rapidly: it is about two miles long 
and one and a half wide. ‘The southern beach consists of a solid 
sand, making an insensible declivity; the eastern part appears ata 
distance to be a green plain; this island is the retreat of crabs, tur- - 
tles, and of an infinity of birds.—Diario de Fisica. 
