Miscellanies. 199 
MINERALOGY. 
17. Marine shells in the coal formation.—Heretofore the coal 
formation has afforded only vegetable fossils and a small number of 
shells, which, from their similarity in form to the genus Unio, have 
been regarded as shells of fresh water. Recently, Mr. John Phil- 
lips, author of a valuable geological description of Yorkshire, has 
discovered a series of carboniferous strata, situated in the lower part 
of the formation, directly above a coarse conglomerate, called mill- 
stone grit. The roof of one bed of coal in this series is full, not of 
vegetable fossils, as usual, but of a considerable variety of marine 
shells of the genera Pecten, Ammonites, Orthocera and Ostrea. 
Among the species, Mr. P. has discovered the Pecten papyraceus 
and the Ammonites Listeri. It is remarkable, that this last species, 
hitherto regarded as peculiar to transition formations, has the pecu- 
liar characteristics of the Ammonites of this epoch, i.e. the absence 
' of notchings (dentelures) upon its lobes. In the coal mine of Swan. 
Banks, near Halifax, there is a bed of fresh water shells (Unio) be- 
low the marine bed, and between it and the millstone grit. It seems 
to result from this important observation, that the waters of the sea, 
in which the transition limestones were deposited, after having given, 
for some time, free scope to the fresh water, where the coal beds 
were formed, have again re-covered, in a moment, the regions which 
the fresh water invaded more slowly, and where it accumulated those 
thick deposits of coal now explored in this part of England.—Lond. 
and Ed. Phil. Mag. Nov. 1832, p. 349. 
18, Notices of some of the volcanos and volcanic phenomena of 
Hawaii, (Owyhee,) and other islands in that group, in a letter from 
Mr. Joseph Goodrich, missionary, dated Nov. 17, 1832. 
[The specimens named in this letter, have arrived in good order.] 
20. PROFESSOR SILLIMAN. 
Dear Sir—Since 1 wrote last, I have been up Mauna Kea, and 
also nearly around it; in the valley between Mauna Kea and Mauna 
Loa, the path lies along so near the former, that the snowy summit 
is not to be seen till the traveller has nearly reached the opposite 
side; while Mauna Loa presents an appalling aspect, streams of 
black, dismal looking lava having run from the top to the shore, so 
very ragged and uneven, that it is almost enough to tear or cut one’s 
hands and feet to pieces to cross over them. . A person who has 
