Miscellanies. 199 



MINERALOGY. 



17. Marine shells in the coal formation. — Heretofore the coal 

 formation has afforded only vegetable fossils and a small number, of 

 shells, which, from their similarity in form to the genus Unio, have 

 been regarded as shells of fresh water. Recently, Mr. John Phil- 

 lips, author of a valuable geological description of Yorkshire, has 

 discovered a series of carboniferous strata, situated in the lower part 

 of the formation, directly above a coarse conglomerate, called mill- 

 stone grit. The roof of one bed of coal in this series is full,, not of 

 vegetable fossils, as usual, but of a considerable variety of marine 

 shells of the .genera Pecten, Ammonites, Orthocera and Ostrea. 

 Among the species,. Mr. P. has discovered the Pecten papyi-aceus 

 and the Ammonites Listeri. It is remarkable, that this last species, 

 hitherto regarded as peculiar to transition formations, has the pecu- 

 liar characteristics of the Ammonites of this epoch, i. e. the absence 

 of notchings (dentelures) upon its lobes. In the coal mine of Swan 

 Banks, near Halifax, there is a bed of fresh water shells (Unio) be- 

 low the marine bed, and between it and the millstone grit. It seems 

 to result from this important observation, that the waters of the sea, 

 in which the transition limestones were deposited, after having given, 

 for some time, free scope to the fresh water, where the coal beds 

 were formed, have again re-covered, in a moment, the regions which 

 the fresh water invaded more slowly, and where it accumulated those 

 thick deposits of coal now explored in this part of England. — Land, 

 and Ed. Phil. Mag. Mv. 1832, p. 349. 



18. JVotices of some of the volcanos and volcanic phenomena of 

 Hawaii, [Owyhee,] and other islands in that group, in a letter from 

 Mr. Joseph Goodrich, missionary, dated Nov. 17, 1832. 



[The specimens named in this letter, have arrived in good order.] 



TO PROFESSOR SILLIMAIf. 



Dear Sir — Since 1 wrote last, I have been up Mauna Kea, and 

 also nearly around it ; in the valley between Mauna Kea and Mauna 

 Loa, the path lies along so near the former, that the snowy summit 

 is not to be seen till the traveller has nearly reached the opposite 

 side ; while Mauna Loa presents an appalling aspect, streams of 

 black, dismal looking lava having run from the top to the shore, so 

 very ragged and uneven, that it is almost enough to tear or cut one's 

 hands and feet to pieces to cross over them. A person who has 



