486 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



win, Grarbanati, Haskell, Tillman, Seelcy, Robert Simpson, Prof. Hedrick, 

 and others. Forty-two members in all. 



Robert L. Pell in the Chair; Henry Meigs, Secretary. 



Mr. Meigs read the following papers prepared by him, viz : 



[Year Book of Facts, 1859 — London.] 



COAL FORMATION. 



Sligmaria and Sigillnria. — Stigmaria, is the "roots" of the plant called 

 Sigillaria, and are found in coal floors^ running thirty feet and striking 

 into the floor of the coal bed. The rootlets are six to 10 feet long. The 

 sigillaria must have been plants of rapid growth. 



GOLD FIELDS OP AUSTRALIA. 



" Mr. Selwyn, the Geologist of Victoria, recognizes gold bearing drifts 

 of three diiferent ages. The deepest contains large quantities of wood, 

 seed vessels, &c., have various depths down to 280 feet, associated with 

 various clays, sands and pebbles, overlaid by sheets of lava. A more re- 

 cent drift contains bones of living and of extinct marsupial, (such as have 

 pouches.) At Warnamboul, the marine or estuary (bay or arm of the sea,) 

 beds of probably the same age, are overlaid by volcanic ashes. A third 

 drift of gold near the surface. The largest amount of gold is found near 

 the Silurian Schists. 



John Phillips, Government Surveyor, finds the gullies with gold all have 

 a fall ; the ancient ones of 16 in a 1,000, while the more recent gullies fall 

 only 8 per 1,000. Silver nuggets are found near Ballarat. 



NEW OIL FOR PURE WHITE LIGHT. 



Price's Patent Candle Company have prepared " Belmontine Oil." At 

 the late meeting of the British Association, at Leeds, Mr. Warren De la 

 Rue exhibited in an improved reflecting stereoscope, by means of it, his 

 splendid eight inch lunar photographs. These candles are made out of the 

 semi-fluid naphtha, drawn up from the wells in the neighborhood of the 

 river Irawaddy, in the Burmese Empire. The natives use it for lamps, to 

 preserve timber, to destroy insects, and as a medicine. It is partly vola- 

 tile ; is imported in metal vessels, hermetically sealed. A similar article, 

 in some points, has been obtained from heat and other organic materials, 

 by Reichenback, Gregory, Reese, Young, Wiseman, of Bonn, and others. 

 De la Rue's patent, is, from first to last, a simple separation without 

 cheinical changes, 



Mr. Henley remarks, that "Earth currents of electricity must always 

 disturb sub-marine and subterranean lines, as atmospheric currents do the 

 overground wires. That these currents have a daily variation, being gen- 

 erally from Southwest to Northeast at one period of the day, and from 

 Northeast to Southwest the rest of the twenty-four hours. These facts were 

 confirmed and elucidated, when the Atlantic telegraph wire parted about 

 850 miles from Ireland. The phenomena of the earth currents were observed ; 

 they deflected the needle of the galvanometer rapidly, just as if signals were 



