246 Miscellaneous Motices in Min&i-aiogy, Geology ^ ^^c. 



Since I wrote to you, I have procured engravings of the 

 fossils found in the coal fields of England. I was thus en- 

 abled to compare ours with them, and the result of this com- 

 parison, I hope to be enabled to lay before you, within a few 

 months. The bamboo, I think, certainly grew in England, 

 but I see no cassia, nor palm leaves. The largest roots 

 found in iron stone in England, appear to have belonged to 

 some plant resembling the water lilly. 



27. Notice of a Dolomite and description of a soft green 

 rock — by Mr. George Chase, in a letter to the editor dated, 

 Randolph, Vt. JVov. 8th, 1818. 



(See Vol. I. p. 241 of this Journal.) In addition to the 

 very singular limestone which I mentioned in a former let- 

 ter, there is on a farm in Northfield fourteen miles to the 

 northwest, a limestone — white as snow — perhaps it may be 

 called a Dolomite. In Roxbury, there is a rock of which 

 the following is a description. " Will not strike fire — can be 

 scratched with a nail — slightly unctuous — general appear- 

 ance of the mass green — small pieces grass-green — this 

 colour when the stone is wet, is very lively — small pieces 

 harden by exposure to the blowpipe, but a large piece put 

 into the fire seemed to break easier after burning than be- 

 fore — the spots or specks throughout the stone of a whi- 

 tish colour, effervesces feebly with nitric acid — those parts 

 of the deepest green do not effervesce — scaly and splintery 

 fracture — well fitted to be sawed and cut being free from 

 rifts — magnet does not take up small pieces which have 

 been exposed to the heat — there is occasionally in this 

 stone an appearance of minute scales of mica." In Beth- 

 el, a town adjoining, a rock similar to this is cut into pieces 

 fitted for hearths, he. but its colour is different, being of a 

 bluish grey. I can think of nothing in your cabinet it re- 

 sembles more than grauwacke slate, but the composition is 

 evidently different, since this is a primitive country. The 

 geological situation of this rock is between the clay and 

 mica slate. 



Is not the above rock chlorite slate with some intermix- 

 ture of carbonat of lime.'' Its infusibility is however against 

 this supposition ; \ve have not seen any speoimen.--— Ed. 



