Miscellanies. 191 



of fusion appear, although the mineral evidently indicates the action of a 

 high temperature. The tenacity of this iron is extremely great, but it is 

 readily hammered and filed. It does not oxidize even when exposed to a 

 moist atmosphere. Its specific gravity is 7.736. The mean of three 

 analyses performed by M. Morren give us its composition — 



Iron, 90,241 



Nickel, 9.759—100. 



This iron is remarkable on account of the large quantity of nickel ; no 

 trace either of copper, cobalt or manganese vi^as discoverable. The spe- 

 cimen is deposited in the museum of Angers. — Chronique Sdentifique, 

 24 Feb. 18.39, in Lond. and Ed. Phil. Mag. May, 1839. 



10. Enche's Comet. — During its recent return to the perihelion, this 

 comet has been carefully watched by observers in various parts of Europe. 

 At Breslau, it was first detected as early as the 19th of August, 1838, by 

 M. Boguslawski. At Berlin, it was first seen on the 16th of September, 

 and in England and France about the same time. At Marseilles, M. 

 Valz observed with much attention the changes of the comet's dimen- 

 sions: He estimates its volume on the 10th of October to have been 826 

 times as great as on 24th of November following. He obtained a view of 

 the body as late as the morning of the 12th of December, two days before 

 its perihelion passage. The differences between the observed and the 

 calculated places of the comet have been found very slight. According 

 to Gautier, they indicate that the mass of Mercury was assumed too large 

 by M. Encke. 



11. Remains of the 3Iastodon in 3Iissouri. — In various parts of this 

 vast continent, remains of the Mastodon have been occasionally disin- 

 terred.* I have recently obtained an uncommonly large, entire, head of 

 the Mastodon, together with many of the other bones. The circumstan- 

 ces attending its discovery are these : 



A few weeks since, receiving information from a friend that many 

 large bones were found on the land of Captain Palmer & Co., about 

 22 miles south of St. Louis, I immediately proceeded to the spot ; and 

 through the politeness and encouragement of Captain Palmer, commenced 

 operations, which proved more successful than my most sanguine antici- 

 pations. The outside formation and peculiar construction of the upper 

 part of the head is different from that of any quadruped in Natural 

 History that I am acquainted with. It is composed of small cells about 

 three quarters of an inch square, and about three inches deep, covered by 

 a thin cranium ; attached to the upper jaw is the snout which projects 



* We have omitted a few lines in this place as being erroneous in fact, since 

 several entire skeletons have been made up, and an entire head is described and 

 figured in our Vol. 36, page 189. 



