EXTRACTS FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC. 163 



You. may melt a sulphuret of copper in a furnace 1000 times, but 

 you never can reduce it to pure copper unless carbon be present. 

 'He was also satisfietl that the calcareous spar veins, containing cop- 

 per which he found there, arc true igneous dykes, cutting up 

 ^through the strata the same as the trap dykes; and that the cop- 

 jper ore of that region is part of the primary copper of the 

 Tlobe. The ore had been traced for a mile, and contained 70 

 ler cent of copper. But still he warned the public against 

 my wild-goose speculations there. 



TRAP ROCKS, &C. 



Dr. Whelpley then made a few remarks on the theory of the 

 rap rocks of the Connecticut valley, &c. He observed that the 

 lew red sandstone here was bounded by ridges of primitive ; the 

 lip of the sandstone was a little to the south of east and the trap 

 monies up through conformable to this dip. The trap goes east of 

 lorth through Connecticut to Massachusetts. Serpentine and ar- 

 l^illites principally compose the primitives on the borders. The 

 vhole of Connecticut, the west half of Massachusetts, Vermont, 

 ^cc. were once covered with this new red sandstone. It is seen 

 solated at Woodbury, Conn. ; where the trap is pushed up through 

 he sand, it has vitrified it. The sandstone between the dykes is 

 •oft and friable. 



Some considerable discussion here took place relative to the 

 )rigin of the crescent-like form of the trap, which by Mr. Whelp- 

 ey was thought to be owing to the obliquity of the trap in the 

 niginal formation, and by Mr. 15. Silliman, Jr., to surface denuda- 

 ion. 



FRESH WATER FORMATION IN OREGON. 



Prof. Bailey gave a very interesting account of specimens of 

 bssilliferous siliceous infusoria, brought from Oregon by Lt. Fre- 

 nont ; they w^ere similar to those found now beneath the peat 

 )ogs of the United States, and had ceased to be an object of sur- 

 irise, although they must cease to be an object of interest. There 

 vas an unusual degree of interest attached to these infusorial strata 

 i)f Oregon, as they occurred under circumstances unparalleled. 

 iPhey are all fresh water infusoria ; and are from near the river on 

 he eastern flank of the Cascade Mountains, which are volcanic 

 md are 15,000 feet high, in long. 121° 10', lat. 44° 35'. Over these 

 nfusorial strata there is a deposit of scoriaceous basalt 100 feet 

 hick, beside other strata. So that these smallest specimens of 

 creation have been thus hermetically sealed up to the present day. 



Prof. Rogers observed it was a subject of the highest interest 

 ihat we had at last found a genuine fresh water formation in the 

 Jnited States ; and over which remains the lava of volcanic cra- 

 ers now extinct, like what is met with in Central France. It wa^: 



