2 
i 
sus 
Miscellanies. , ae 
Bc = ee ‘ 
om 7 range that are not torn up, have their leaves scorched and withered as if 
_ afire had passed over them, and iron substances, such as farming im- 
‘plements, always exhibit unequivocal evidence of having been submitted to 
electrical action. ‘This was particularly noticed in the tornado near New 
Haven. That such is the case, the fact, that in such tornadoes occurring 
in the night the central part of the whirl app like a pillar of fire or 
heated iron, is conclusive evidence. Of such appearance the tornado at 
Shelbyville, and the one described by Arago near Paris, are examples. 
If a stream of smoke from a chimney, or a column of heated air from 
grain or hay in a barn are such conductors, as experience shows them 
to be, there can be no doubt that such a column as is formed in a whirl- 
wind, reaching from the earth to the heavens, would form one still more 
efficient. ; W.G. 
Otisco, N. Y. Jan. 1841. 
3. Notice of a new variety of Beryl,* recently discovered at Haddam, 
Conn.; by Joun Jounston, A. M., Professor of Natural Science in the 
Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn. ; Corresponding Member of the 
_ New York Lyceum of Natural History.—Read before the Lyceum, Jan. 
11th, 1841.—This mineral which I propose to notice, evidently helongs 
to the species beryl, with which it closely corresponds in its natural prop- 
erties; but differs from it in color and in the great perfection and exqui- 
site finish of the crystals, as well as some other peculiarities to be hereafter 
noticed. 
The color is mountain green, or perhaps better, milky mountain green, 
all the crystals possessing a peculiarity which is best described by this 
word. One terminal plane in nearly all the crystals is perfect, and, like 
the other faces, possesses an exquisite polish. In most of the crystals the 
peculiar milkiness ceases near the terminal face, which presents the ap- 
pearance, as an individual remarked, of having been veneered with green 
glass. Sometimes this transparent portion is a quarter of an inch thick, 
but usually it is about the thickness of window glass, which it much re- 
sembles. The hardness is about 7.5, which is the same as that of com- 
mon beryl. The specific, gravity of four specimens was found to be as 
follows, viz. 2.716, 2.717, 2.719, 2.716; that of the common beryl is from 
2.678 to 2.732. 
On the lateral faces of many of the crystals are numerous rhombic fig- 
ures, produced by crystallization, like the faces of thombohedra, which 
may be supposed to be contained within the crystals, but having their 
faces a little elevated above those of the former. This appearance, which 
it is believed has not been observed in the common beryl or the emerald, 
seems to indicate that the rnombohedron is the primary form of this spe- 
ee eee 
* See Vol. xxxviui, p. 68, of this Journal. 
