388 Miscellanies. 



talc ; it has been described and analyzed by the Count TroUe Wacht- 

 meister ; its color is steel gray to brownish, yields on heating, water 

 with some ammonia ; it contains silica 46.27, alumina 25.10, oxide of 

 iron 15.60, magnesia 3.80, protoxide of manganese 0.89, potassa 2.70, 

 soda 1.20, water 6.00, and a trace of fluor, and has a formula of 



ESi+AlSi+H*. 



3. Infusorial Animals. — Baron Von Humboldt presented to the 

 Academy, from M. Ehrenberg, of Berlin, specimens of the argillaceous 

 and peaty formation found beneath the city of Berlin, at twenty feet 

 under the surface. It was full of small infusorial animals, all alive, 

 with living ovaries, and capable of reproduction. He had discovered 

 similar formations in other parts of Prussia ; and he mentioned as a 

 curious fact, that of 1,728,000 cubic feet of matter taken out of the 

 port of Svvinemunde, on the Baltic, in 1840, one half of it was com- 

 posed of microscopic beings. The sandy plains of the Lamburg con- 

 tained strata of fossil infusoria twenty eight feet thick. — Literary Ga- 

 zette, Nov. 13. 



4. Coal Mines in Cuha. 

 To the Editors of the American Journal of Science and Arts. 



Gentlemen — In the belief that no account has appeared in any Amer- 

 ican publication, of the extensive coal mine which has been discovered 

 in Cuba, the progress made in the examination of which I have for a 

 year or two past watched with much interest, I send herewith a notice 

 published by M. Castdles in the " Diario de la Habana,'''' of the 7th 

 of August. The mine is situated in the Partido de San Miguel, about 

 six miles from Havanna, and is particularly interesting on account of 

 its locality and the quality of the mineral. 



The coal is of two kinds, one of which, denominated " chapapote,'''' 

 is the most abundant. One hundred parts of this yielded fifty parts of 

 volatile matter, and afforded by analysis. 



Carbon, 71.84 



Oxygen, 6.22 



Hydrogen, . 8.40 



Ashes composed of silica, ox. iron, and sulph. lime, 13.51 



99.97 

 I remain, gentlemen, with great esteem and respect, your friend and 

 servant. John H. Blake. 



Boston, October 7, 1841. 



