Association of American Geologists and Natiiralisis. 169 



Prof. W. B. Rogers mentioned that he had found the sulphuret 

 of zinc sometimes, and the sihcate (electric calamine) generally 

 and very abundantljr in the lead mines of Wythe Co., Virginia. 

 The latter mineral often occupies a great part of the breadth of the 

 vein, lying for the most part beneath the lead ore, sometimes as a 

 sub-crystalline mass and sometimes in groups of small radiating 

 crystals. The snlphuret is chiefly met in nests and thin veins, 

 in the sparry and magnesian limestone adjoining the lead ore, and 

 is intermixed with crystals and small seams of galena. 



Prof Rogers added, as a fact of mineralogical interest, that 

 besides the sulphuret of lead, these mines yield in some instances 

 quite a large proportion of carbonate, of which beautifully pure 

 crystalline specimens are by no means uncommon ; and what is 

 still more interesting, they furnish a very considerable amount of 

 red oxide or native rninium, with a small proportion of yellow ox- 

 ide, both of which have hitherto been regarded as very rare min- 

 erals. From its resemblance to ferruginous earth or clay, this red 

 oxide was until lately regarded at the mines as worthless, but is 

 now highly valued for its productiveness in metal. 



Dr. C. T. Jackson exhibited a specimen of meteoric iron from 

 Claiborne County, Alabama, in which he discovered chlorine 

 in the form of chloride of iron and nickel, in 1834. (See this 

 Journal, Vol. xxxiv, p. 332.) 



Pi^of. J. B. Rogers referred to some analyses of meteoric iron 

 and meteorites recently made by him. A specimen of meteoric 

 iron taken from a mass of many pounds weight in Grayson Co. 

 Virginia, was found to contain 6.15 per cent, of nickel, and gave 

 a very slight trace of chlorine. A meteoric stone from Georgia, 

 made up of shot-like grains of nickeliferous iron with slender 

 flattened threads of the same mineral imbedded in a paste com- 

 posed chiefly of silicate of magnesia and alumina, gave no indi- 

 cations of chlorine. The grains yielded 7 per cent, of nickel. 



Prof. W. B. Rogers stated that he had examined a mass of 

 meteoric iron from Roanoke County, Virginia, and was unable to 

 detect in it the slightest trace of chlorine. A fragment of mete- 

 oric stone from Ashe County, North Carolina, examined at the 

 same time, was found to contain a marked quantity of this prin- 

 ciple, the presence of which, however, was accounted for by the 

 fragment having been in contact with a bag of salt, as it was car- 

 ried home by the person who found it. 



Vol. XLiii, No. 1.— April-June, 1842. 22 



