ASBESTOS AND ITS APPLICATIONS. 437 
year, and Capt. Dutton, to whom it had been intrusted, occupied himself with 
an investigation of the volcanoes of the Hawaiian Islands. 
Researches in the mining districts of Colorado have been made by Mr, S. F. 
iEmmons, and promise to throw much light on the theory of veins and their rela- 
tions to the eruptive rocks with which they are associated. In the Gunnison 
district valuable beds of both anthracite and bituminous coal, of a quality unsur- 
passed in Colorado, have been found, and promise to make that locality one of 
the most important in the State. The ore bodies of the district also appear to be 
much of importance. The results of the investigations of minerals collected in 
Colorado have proved to be of great value to geology, so much so as to have 
-elicited commendations from investigators, both in this country and in Europe. 
A reconnaissance of the California quick-silver districts has been begun by 
Mr. Becker, and the work will be energetically prosecuted. 
The search for extinct vertebrate remains has been continued under the 
direction of Prof. Marsh, ajid its results have proved to be of the greatest in- 
terest. 
Special examination of the so-called Laramie beds which prevail over a large 
portion of the west, and constitute the most important part of the western coal 
bearing horizons, have been made by Dr. C. A. White. Other specialists have 
been engaged in the collection of fossils. 
In the physical laboratory at New Haven much time has been spent in the 
adjustment of instruments of precision, chief stress being laid upon investigations 
relating to the exact measurement of high temperatures. 
Very interesting results have also been attained by experiments to ascertain 
the physical properties of steel — experiments which throw much light upon the 
exact nature of the differences between that metal and other forms of iron. — 
National Republicati. 
ASBESTOS AND ITS APPLICATIONS. 
Asbestos, a peculiar variety of the amphibole or hornblende family of min- 
erals, is most largely found in Canada and Italy. It occurs in regular layers or 
veins, generally as a grayish-green rock made up of innumerable fine crystaline 
fibres which become soft, white, and of a silky lustre when separated from each 
other by slight pressure. The thickness of the veins varies considerably in differ- 
ent locaUties, from a thin sheet, in the case of the variety known as mountain- 
leather, to several inches in the deposits of the delicate amianthus found in the 
older crystalline rocks, in the Pyrenees, the Alps of Dauphiny, the St. Gothard, 
the Savoy, and Corsica. A single fibre of asbestos, heated in the flame of a blow- 
,pipe, readily fuses to a white enamel, the varieties containing most iron being 
most easily fused, but in the mass it resists the heat of an ordinary flame, and for 
this reason it has recently begun to attract considerable attention. Unfortunately, 
Ethe fibres of asbestos differ from all other known fibres in having a perfectly 
VJ;I— 28 
