Reéramination of American Minerals. Al 
tion of the earth’s crust to the height of Mont Blanc or to a ver- 
' tical elevation of three miles above the level of the sea. In like 
manner, if a large shoal be rising, or attempting to rise, in mid- 
Ocean at the rate of six inches or even four feet in a hundred 
years, the waves may grind down to mud and sand and readily 
Sweep away the rocks so upraised as fast as they come within 
the denuding action of the waves. A mass having a vertical 
thickness of three miles might thus be stripped off in the course 
of ages, and inferior rocks laid bare. So in regard to volcanic 
agency a certain quantity of lava is poured out annually upon the 
surface, or is injected into the earth’s crust below the surface, and 
great metamorphic changes resulting from subterranean heat ac- 
company the injection. Whether each of these effects be multi- 
plied by fifty thousand, or by half a million or by two million of 
years, may entirely deeide the question whether we shall or shall 
not be compelled to abandon the doctrine of paroxysmal violence 
in ancient as contrasted with modern times. Were we hastily to 
take for granted the paroxysmal intensity of the forces above 
alluded to, organic and inorganic, while the ordinary course of 
nature may of itself afford the requisite amount of aqueous, igne- 
ous, and vital force, (if multiplied by a sufficient number of cen- 
turies,) we might find ourselves embarrassed by the possession of 
twice as much mechanical force and vital energy as we require 
for the purposes of geological interpretation. 
Arr. V.—Reéxamination of American Minerals: Part II— 
Chesterlite; Loxoclase; Danbury Feldspars ; Haddam Al- 
ite; Greenwood Mica; Biotite; Margarodite ; Chesterlite 
Tale; Rhodophyllite; Cummingtonite ; Hydrous Anthophyl- 
lite ; Monrolite ; Ozarkite ; Dysyntribite; Gibbsite; E’me- 
rald Nickel; by J. Lawrence Surru, M.D., Professor of Chem- 
istry in the University of Virginia, and Georce J. Brusu, Ph. B., 
Assistant to the Chemical Department. 
In this Second Part of the reéxamination of American minerals, 
Wwe include many other doubtful species—the results concerning 
them being presented below under their respective heads. It 
may be well to mention that no mineral is analyzed, the authen- 
icity of which is not placed beyond the shadow of a doubt ; and 
iN many instances specimens of the same mineral have been ob- 
tained from different cabinets, they having been originally col- 
lected by different persons. These labors have been very muc 
facilitated by many of the proprietors of the finest collections in 
is county, and in addition to those mentioned in our last ogo 
we would acknowledge our obligations to Professors Dana an 
Silliman, Jr., Mr. Wm. S. Vaux of Philadelphia, Messrs. Jenkins 
Szconp Series, Vol. XVI, No. 46.—duly, 1853. 6 
