AMERICAN GEOLOGISTS AND NATURALISTS. 13 



made on this subject by gentlemen present. He had digested 

 soils from INIaine, New Hampshire and Rhode Island, with boil- 

 ing water, without discovering more than a trace of potash ; 

 while the method proposed by IMitscherlich of digesting the soils 

 in free sulphuric acid, always gave decided indications of pot- 

 ash. He was led to infer, therefore, that the mica and other min- 

 erals containing potassa were by this method decomposed. 



Ml*. B. SiLLiMAN, Jr. stated that the soil of the Nile, when 

 treated according to the method of Mitscherlich, gave abundance 

 of potash, but not any appreciable quantity with boiling water ; 

 he was tlierefore led to believe that the mica, contained abun- 

 dantly in the soil, was decomposed by the sulphuric acid. 



Resolved., That a committee be appointed to prepare a detail- 

 ed report upon the subject of soils and mineral manures, im- 

 bodying as well the fruits of theu* own investigations as the 

 results arrived at by others, and that the same be presented at the 

 next meeting. 



Drs. C. T. Jackson, E-obert Rogers, IVIr. M. H. Boye, Dr. 

 L. C. Beck, Div W. Horton, Mr. B. Silliman, Jun., and Prof. 

 Booth, were appointed on the above committee. 



The committee appointed to prepare a plan of business, made 

 a report, which was adopted. 



Prof. IMather asked for and obtained leave to defer his report 

 on " Drift," until the next meeting of the Association ; in the 

 mean time he was requested to make an oral communication on 

 this subject during the present meeting. 



Prof. Locke read a paper " On the Geology of some parts of 

 the United States w^est of the Alleghany Mountains." 



In this paper the author exhibited particularly the points of agree- 

 ment between the lead region of the upper Mississippi, and that of 

 Derbyshire in England, and between the mouniain limestone of 

 Europe and the " cliff limestone" of the West. He showed that the 

 two rocks agree in geological position, in external and chemical 

 characters, in fossil remains, and in metallic veins ; being both high- 

 ly metalliferous, and abounding in lead and zinc ores occupying ver- 

 tical fissures. He described the upper, middle, and lower beds of 

 the " cliff limestone " of the lead region of the AVest as differing 

 somewhat in characters and in fossil remains, and suggested the 

 inquiry whether these three beds, together with the blue fossilifer- 

 ous limestone which underlies them, (the probable equivalent of 

 the Trenton limestone,) and the alternations of the lower magne- 

 sian limestone with the saccharoid sandstone, found at Prairie du 

 Chien, should be considered distinct formations, (as their fossil're-' 



