Miscellanies. 401 



range that are not torn up, have their leaves scorched and withered as if 

 a fire had passed over them, and iron substances, such as farming im- 

 plements, always exhibit unequivocal evidence of having been submitted to 

 electrical action. This was particularly noticed in the tornado near New 

 Haven. That such is the case, the fact, that in such tornadoes occurring 

 in the night the central part of the whirl appears like a pillar of fire or 

 heated iron, is conclusive evidence. Of such appearance the tornado at 

 Shelbyvijle, and the one described by Arago near Paris, are examples. 

 If a stream of smoke from a chimney, or a column of heated air from 

 grain or hay in a barn are such conductors, as experience shows them 

 to be, there can be no doubt that such a column as is formed in a whirl- 

 wind, reaching from the earth to the heavens, would form one still more 

 efficient. W. G. 



Otisco, N. Y. Jan. 1841. 



3. Notice of a neio variety of Beryl* recently discovered at Haddam, 

 Conn.; by John Johnston, A. M., Professor of Natural Science i?i the 

 Wesleyan University, Middlctoion, Conn. ; Corresponding Slember of the 

 New Yo?-k Lyceum of Natural History. — Read before the Lyceum, Jan. 

 11th, 1841. — This mineral which I propose to notice, evidently belongs 

 to the species beryl, with which it closely corresponds in its natural prop- 

 erties; but differs from it in color and in the great perfection and e.xqui- 

 site finish of the crystals, as well as some other peculiarities to be hereafter 

 noticed. 



The color is mountain green, or perhaps better, milky mountain green, 

 all the crystals possessing a peculiarity which is best described by this 

 word. One terminal plane in nearly all the crystals is perfect, and, like 

 the other faces, possesses an exquisite polish. In most of the crystals the 

 peculiar milkiness ceases near the terminal face, which presents the ap- 

 pearance, as an individual remarked, of having been veneered with green 

 glass. Sometimes this transparent portion is a quarter of an inch thick, 

 but usually it is about the thickness of window glass, which it much re- 

 sembles. The hardness is about 7.5, which is the same as that of com- 

 mon beryl. The specific gravity of four specimens was found to be as 

 follows, viz. 2.716, 2.717, 2.719, 2.716 ; that of the common beryl is from 

 2.678 to 2.732. 



On the lateral faces of many of the crystals are numerous rhombic fig- 

 ures, produced by crystallization, like the faces of rhombohedra, which 

 may be supposed to be contained within the crystals, but having their 

 faces a little elevated above those of the former. This appearance, which 

 it is believed has not been observed in the common beryl or the emerald, 

 seems to indicate that the rhombohedron is the primary form of this spe- 



* Sec Vol. XXXVIII, p. 68, of this Journal. 



