378 Miscellanies. 



"rying from fine grained to coarse grained. It is brittle, but yields 

 more easily in one direction, separating into angular parts, resembling 

 loaf sugar closely, in some specimens. Color varies from snow-white 

 to reddish brown and gray. Some specimens have a lemon yellow 

 tint irregularly distributed; specific gravity, 2.290; taste, nitrous, 

 with a cooling impression ; odor, peculiar, and when warmed resem- 

 bling chloride of iodine dissolved in water. 



Composition of average specimens is nitrate of soda 64.98, sul- 

 phate of soda 3.00, chloride of sodium 28.69, iodic salts 0.63, shells 

 and marl 2.60, =99.90. 



Mixed with this mineral, I have found nitrate of potash, sulphate 

 of lime, chloride of sodium, iodate of potash or soda, and chloriodate 

 of magnesia, the latter imparting the bright yellow tint which some 

 specimens show. 



April 1, 1840. — Dr. D. H. Stoker, in the chair. 



Dr. Storer presented the following report on the fishes referred to 

 him at the last meeting of the Society. 



The fishes presented to the Society at its last meeting, as having 

 been taken from Jamaica pond, about five miles from this city, are the 

 Osmerus eperlaniis, common smelt. You may be surprised at the 

 circumstance of salt water fishes being taken in a fresh water pond 

 entirely disconnected with the sea. During the preparation of my 

 report upon the Fishes of Massachusetts, I learned from Benjamin 

 Weld, Esq. of Roxbury, it was generally understood that the smelts 

 found in Jamaica pond, were originally placed there by Governor 

 Barnard. Investigating this subject, to procure some certain data, I 

 met with the following extract, in a note, by Daines Barrington, the 

 then Vice President of the Royal Society, to a letter from John Rein- 

 hold Foster, "on the management of Carp in Polish Prussia:" 

 " I have been informed by Sir Francis Barnard (the late Governor of 

 New England) that in a large pool which he rented not far from Bos- 

 ton, and which had not the least communication with the sea, several 

 of these fish, originally introduced from the salt water, had lived many 

 years, and were, to all appearance, very healthy."* As I have never 

 heard of this fish having been taken in any other pond in this neigh- 

 borhood, there can be but little doubt that the "large pool" referred 

 to in the above note, was Jamaica pondt The specimens you per- 

 ceive are considerably smaller than those purchased in our market — 



* Philosophical Transactions, Vol. 61, for the year 1771, p. 312. 

 t I have ascertained since writing the above, that Gov. Barnard's residence was 

 on the borders of Jamaica pond. 



