GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY. 151 



were produced, and the massive nuclei of the mountain ranges were raised 

 above the surrounding country. 



" 7. What changes took place in the physical geography of the West during 

 the long period which must have elapsed after the deposition [of the Potsdam 

 sandstone until the commencement of the Carboniferous age, we have very few 

 data to determine. We are inclined to think that this portion of the West at 

 least was elevated above the water level during the greater part of that period ; 

 the numerous indications of shallow water during the accumulation of the Pots- 

 dam sandstone, and the almost entire absence of rocks of intermediate age over 

 so large an area, further strengthens that opinion. It is true, that in the far 

 Northwest we have proofs that the hiatus is partially filled, but in the South and 

 Southwest, the evidence is still more meagre. Near the Humboldt Mountains, in 

 Utah, Messrs. Meek and Engelmann have detected proofs of Devonian rocks, 

 but they are not known to be largely developed, and on the western declivity 

 of the El Paso Mountains, Dr. G. Shumard found ' well marked strata of the 

 inferior Silurian system corresponding in age to the Blue Limestone of Cincin- 

 nati and the Hudson River group of the New York series.' But so far as our 

 present knowledge extends, rocks of intermediate ages do not form a prominent 

 feature in the geology of the West." 



MINERALOGICAL NOTICES. 



Meteoric Stones. — Rammelsberg {Chemisches Central Blutt, No. 1, 1862, quoted 

 from the Bericht der Akad. der Wissenschaften zu Berlin) has examined some 

 aerolites and supposed meteoric stones from North America. An analysis of 

 the celebrated aerolite of Bishopsville, South Carolina, yielded the following 

 results : Silica, 57.52 ; alumina, 2.72 ; scsqui oxide of iron, 1.25 ; oxide of man- 

 ganese, 0.20 ; Magnesia. 34.80 ; lime, 0.66; soda, 1.14; potash, 0.70 ; ignition 

 loss, 0.80 = 99.79. This composition is considered to indicate a mixture of 

 several substances, rather than a single definite compound. The supposed 

 meteoric origin of the so-called aerolites of Waterloo, Seneca County, New York, 

 of Richland in South Carolina, and Rutherford, North Carolina, is shewn (as 

 already surmised by others) to be entirely fallacious. The first is merely a 

 ferruginous clay ; the second, in all probability, a fragment of brick or tile ; and 

 the third, an impure cast iron, containing 15.7 per cent, of silica. 



Pholerite. — M. Pisani (Comptes Rendus 24, LIII.) has published an analysis of 

 the pholerite of Lodeve, obtained by M. S«raann. The analysis yielded : silica, 

 47.0 ; alumina, 39.4 ; water, 14.4. This gives, according to the author, 

 3 Al^Qs, 4 Si03 + 6 HO ; better transposed into : APO^ 2 SiO^ + 2 HO. The 

 latter formula agrees exactly with that of the pholerite of Freiberg analysed by 

 Miiller, and it corresponds also (although M. Pisani makes no allusion to this) 

 with the formula of the Pensylvanian pholerite examined by Dr. Genth. 



Wagite. — Under this name (in honor of M. Waga, a naturalist of Warsaw,) 

 M. Radoszkovski describes, in the above number of the Comptes Reiulus, a hydra- 

 ted silicate of zinc from Nijni-Jagust, in the Oural. It occurs in concretionary 



