EXTRACTS FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC. 1G9 



and exhausted cotton lands can be renewed by it, avoldini^- the 

 necessity of opening new plantations ; this marl contains 35 

 per cent of carbonate of lime. Specimens of nearly 20 masto- 

 dons have been found above the blue clay, and in such a state as 

 to show conclusively that these mastodons perished where they are 

 found ! The teeth, &,c., of the fossil horse have been found, 

 showing that these antcdcluvian horses were not unfit associates 

 for the horses of the present day ! And above all other remarka- 

 1)K' facts, there has been found actually a piece of human skull 

 lying in the same bed with the nondescript blind animal before 

 iliscriped, and in a state which shows that this piece of the 

 human skull has undergone precisely the same changes as the 

 bones of that animal, and the same degree of fossillification. 

 There can be no mistake in this being the skull of a human — an 

 inlmal that walked upright; and one that must have lived at the 

 lie time with that nondescript animal. Some remains of the 

 j;e Saurian have also been found in the blue clay near Jackson, 

 -s. ; the joints of the bones are beautifully perfect, six inches 

 liameter, and twelve inches long. This animal was 100 feet 

 ig, and is believed to be found only in the United States, 

 shark's teeth, &c., were also found in the same soil. 



Prof. Rogers regretted that more had not been done towards 

 ktcrmining the geological age of the basiloro-saurian, or zeuglo- 

 lon. He moved a resolution that a committee be appointed to 

 ii(|uire into and determine the geological age of that animal. 

 I'liis was carried, and Prof. Rogers was appointed that committee. 

 Prof. Bailey read a very curious paper on fossil coniferous 

 .vood. 



Mr. B. Silliman, jr., then called attention to the abundance of 

 obalt found in the mine La Motte, Missouri. 



Dr. Ja(kson then said that the glass-makers of New-England 

 verc much troubled by the cobalt in the red lead made from the 

 nine La Motte lead ore ; it makes blue flint glass instead of white; 

 iid is easily tested by putting the red lead in a crucible and melt- 

 ■ it with borax ; if a blue bead results, then cobalt is in the red 

 .ad. 



AFTERNOON SESSION. 



Mr. B. Silliman, Jr., then made a few very interesting and able 

 • marks on the cypress trees of the Mississippi region, and of the 

 ' iyous of that place. He alluded particularly to the peculiar 

 ranner in which the cypress tap roots and knees grow under 

 vater, and convert water into land. 



Mr. Whelpley then made some remarks on the similar way in 

 •hich the northern lakes w^ere filling up with vegetable matter, 



Mr. B. Silliman then read a paper by Dr. Webber, on a new 

 orm of attraction. 



VOL. II. — NO. I. W 



