LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC NOTES. 89 
“The cold, however, continued during the depression of North Wales and other 
districts beneath the sea, when they received the stratified erratic drift; and 
glaciers not only did not cease at this time of depression, but were again en- 
larged during the emergence of North Wales and other countries, so as to plough 
the drift out of many valleys. These enlarged glaciers, however, bore no com- 
parison in size to the great original sheets of ice that converted the north of 
Europe and America into a country like North Greenland. The newer develop- 
ment of glaciers was strictly local. Amelioration of climate had already far 
advanced, and probably the gigantic glaciers of Old Switzerland were shrinking 
into the mountain-valleys. 
Finally, if this be true, I find it difficult to believe that the change of climate 
that put an end to this could be brought about by mere changes of physicay 
geography. The change is too large and too universal, having extended alike 
over the lowlands of the Northern and the Southern Hemispheres. The shrunken 
or vanished ice of mountain-ranges is indeed equally characteristic of the Hima- 
laya, the Lebanon, the Alps, the Scandinavian chain, the great chains of North 
and South America, and of other minor ranges and clusters of mountains like 
those of Britain and Ireland, the Black Forest, and the Vosges. 
MINERALOGICAL NOTICES. 
Meteorie Stone of Chassigny.—This celebrated meteorite, first examined by 
‘Vanquelin in 1816, a few months after its fall, has been recently analysed by 
Damour, and shewn to exhibit the formula of a ferruginous chrysolite, viz. :— 
2RO, Si02—in which RO =3 FeO + 2 MgO (Comptes Rendus, LV., No. 15). 
The stone, with a sp. gr. 3°57, has a pale greenish-yellow colour, and is quite 
free from metallic iron. Partsch, in his well-known catalogue of the Meteorites 
in the Royal Collection at Vienna, describes it as one of remarkable peculiarity. 
Although small grains of chrysolite (or olivine) have been observed in various 
meteorites, this is the only known example of a meteoric stone: composed essen- 
tially of that mineral. 
Forcherite-—Under this name, Prof. Auhkom, in 1860, described a hydrated 
siliceous substance, of a yellow colour, from Reittelfield in Upper Styria. A 
more recent examination by R. L. Maly (Journ. fur prak. Chemie, Sept. 1862), 
has shewn the substance in question to be an opal, accidentally coloured by 
yariable proportions of sulphide of arsenic (orpiment?) The term Forcherite as 
applied to this variety of the opal, will not obtain admission, it is to be hoped, 
into the already overcrowded lists of mineralogical synonymes. 
Composition of Staurolite and Towrmaline.—During the course of last year, 
Rammelsburg made known the presence of protoxide of iron (a fact already 
pointed out, however, by the writer of these notes, in 1848). Mitscherlitch has 
‘subsequently ascertained that all the iron is in that condition (Journ. f. prak. 
Chem., Bd. 86). He has also re-examined various tourmalines and found that 
no sesquioxide of iron is properly present in these, but only FeO. A satisfac- 
tory formula for either staurolite or tourmaline, nevertheless, is still to be de- 
‘duced. E. J.C. 
Vou. VIII. H 
