398 Miscellanies. 



but by far the greater part of the mineral vaporized was, as might be 

 supposed, carried away in the current. Since this powerful action was 

 apparently entirely due to the presence of water, there being at all 

 times the same quantity of alkali present in the fuel, whatever that 

 might have amounted to, producing no such effect, the experiment seems 

 to establish, at very high temperatures, a powerful action of water on 

 siliceous matter. To attribute the action to alkali would not lessen the 

 difficulty, both because under perfectly similar circumstances, when 

 there was no water, no eifect was produced, and because each pound 

 of alkali would have had to dissolve, perhaps, forty pounds of silica." 



In connection with this subject it should be remembered how impor- 

 tant a part siliceous animalcules have probably played in the changes 

 which fossils have undergone. The fact that some kinds of flint and 

 opal have been shown to contain siliceous animalcules thickly dissemi- 

 nated, and the vast quantities in which they are collected together in 

 some deposits like that of the tripoli stone, suggest this as a very im- 

 portant source of silica ; and especially in such earthy sedimentary 

 rocks as show by their constitution, that they probably formed a proper 

 habitat for the growth and reproduction of these animalcules. The de- 

 composing vegetable or animal would naturally gather them around it, 

 for they appear in myriads wherever decomposition is in progress ; and 

 the waters slowly dissolving their siliceous casts as they die, especially 

 if aided by some increase of temperature, might thus be prepared to 

 silicify the fossil. Yet this principle cannot be appealed to in all cases. 

 The vast quantities of silicified wood, we find in some regions — espe- 

 cially in regions where there is evidence of igneous action, evince that 

 hot siliceous solutions, the necessary result of subaqueous igneous action, 

 must have been engaged in producing the changes. They are now 

 going on in Iceland. Oregon abounds through its basaltic regions, in 

 evidences that such an agent has been in extensive action ; and so also 

 do most regions of ancient and modern igneous action. 



3. Gold of North Carolina ; in a letter from J. H. Gibbon to the 

 Editors, dated United States Branch Mint, Charlotte, N. C, Jan. 10, 

 1844. — We receive here increasing quantities of gold from mines in 

 this state and that of South Carolina — occasionally, also, from Georgia 

 and Alabama. Gold bullion, to the value of 272,000 dollars was de- 

 posited here for coinage during the last year, exceeding by nearly 

 100,000 dollars the deposits of any preceding yearly period. 



The promptitude with which individual miners ascertain, and receive 

 the value of their gold, is extensively appreciated. Capital and labor 

 are now employed more considerately in mining than has always been 

 the case. 



