Miscellanies. 187 



In May, 1832, Dr. J. C. Johnston employed workmen to remove 

 the earth from a lot in that part of Wheeling, which was used by 

 the aborigines as a cemetery. In making this excavation, a large piece 

 of mica was discovered. The mass was of the breadth* of the spe- 

 cimen herewith forwarded to you, and one inch thick. It was dug 

 out of a bank of gravel and sand, at least eighty feet above the level 

 of the Ohio at this place. It was found about ten feet below the 

 present surface of the ground. This is the site of the old Wheeling 

 fort, in which some of the present inhabitants of Wheeling were born.f 

 It is not the first that has been discovered, but it is the largest that I 

 have seen. Talc was also discovered a few years since, buried in 

 the ground. Mineral coal is abundant in this neighborhood : the 

 veins are from four to eight feet thick, and they lie parallel to the 

 horizon. Pyrites is intermixed with the coal, and forms a consider- 

 able stratum above it; from this mineral, large quantities of copperas 

 are annually manufactured, simply by lixiviation and evaporation, af- 

 ter exposure, for a sufficient time, to the action of the air. Alumin- 

 ous earths are dug up in abundance, six miles east of this place, from 

 which large quantities of the alum of commerce are made. 



17. Geological notices respecting a part of Greene County, Ala- 

 bama; in a letter from Robert W. Withers, M. D. to the Editor, 

 dated Erie, {Ala.) Jan. 15, 1833. — I am a cotton planter, and am 

 situated at the head of a beautiful prairie of six miles in length. 

 This singular kind of country is little known to geology. The prai- 

 ries, obviously, did not originate, as some have supposed, from burn- 

 ings by the Indians. The soil is very pecuhar, and has no resem- 

 blance to that of the land in the vicinity. Our prairies too were 

 evidently once a part of the sea ; the soil is composed of decom- 



rieties; one of the most frequent forms is that of a prolate spheroid: I have one of 

 this form, made of beautiful htematite ; axes, chisels, gouges, and other cutting in- 

 struments, made of hard stones; they appear to have been secured to the handles 

 by being thrust through a split made in a branch of a tree, or by being bound by 

 withs; tomahawks of various stones, generally not the hardest, for they, were per- 

 forated for the reception of a handle ; containing vessels, of soap or pot stone, or 

 coarse pottery, &c. Considering their means and wants, and particularly that they 

 had no iron instruments, the skill, perseverance and success of the aborigines, in 

 fabricating these things, were truly surprising. — Ed. 



* Five inches by three ; probably from a portion of granite ; the region on the Ohio, 

 it is well known, is of a very different geological character; the aborigines may have 

 brought this mica from some primitive region, or obtained it from some of the bowl- 

 ders that are so frequent on the western secondary and transition surfaces. — Ed. 



t Letter from Col. Noah Zane to the Editor. 



