484 ETHNOLOGY AND ARCHJ50L0GY. 



firmed by the similarity of atomic constitution exhibited by these bodies. Au 

 examination of some very perfect specimens, however, obtained from Phillipstadt 

 in Sweden, has shewn Mr. K. P. Grey (Phil. Mag. March, 1856) that the crystallization 

 is triclinia The inclinations of the three assumed pinacoids (or terminal pairs) 

 gave, respectively :— S7°20', 86°10', 110°40'. 



Voigtite: — Under this name (in honor of Voight, a writer who obtained some 

 notice at the close of the last century, as an opponent of the Wernerian doctrines,) 

 Schmid has described a micaceous mineral from a granitic mass, forming part of 

 the Ehrenberg, in the Duchy of Saxe-Weimar. It occurs in small scales, of a brown 

 colour, and opaque ; but is usually much weathered. H. a little over 20 ; Sp. gr. 

 =2-91. Readily fusible. The analysis yielded:— SiO 3 3383, A1 2 3 13-40, Fe l O» 

 8-42, FeO 23-01, MgO 7-54, CaO 204, NaO 0-96, HO 987, = 99-07. It may be 

 regarded, perhaps, as simply a ferruginous variety of Chlorite. 



Volknerite : — Rammelsberg has examined the substance originally named 

 Ily drotalcite by Hochstetter — the Volknerite from Snarum in Norway. He confirms 

 Hermann's statement as to the accidental nature of the carbonate of magnesia 

 present in the mineral ; but his analysis leads to the formula A1 2 3 . 3 HO + 5 (MgO, 

 2HO,) or nearer still, to MgO, Al*0 3 +4 (MgO, 3IIO.) in place of A1*0 3 , 3HO + 6 

 (MgO, 2HO) given by Hermann. 



Boronatrocalcite or Ulexite: — Rammelsberg has also analysed the supposed Boro- 

 calcite from the plains of Iquique in Southern Peru. He finds that soda is really 

 one of its constituents ; and that when freed from impurities, its composition may 

 be expressed by the following formula: [NaO, 2B0 3 + 2 (CaO, 2B0 3 )] + 18HO. 

 This corresponds to BO 3 45'63, CaO 12-26, NaO 679, HO 3532. As the present 

 mineral is thus distinct from Hayesine, Dana's original name of Ulexite should he- 

 re-conferred upon it. 



Schaumkalk: — This substance has been hitherto regarded as a pseudomorphous 

 variety of calc spar after fibrous gypsum. G. Rose ha3 lately shewn, that it belongs 

 properly to Arragonite ; and he calls attention to the fact that it constitutes the 

 first recognized example of an arrasronite pseudomorph. Fossil shells converted 

 into arragonite, are, however not unknown. 



Torbane-Hill Mineral .-— The substance, thus named, still continues to attract, 

 from time to time, the attention of the scientific world. Geuther in his Inaugural 

 Dissertation (Ueber die Natur und Distillationsproducte des Torbanehill-minerala : 

 Gottingen, 1855,) declares, as the result of an elaborate scries of experiments, that 

 the matter in question is simply a bituminous shale. This, is the view almost uni- 

 versally adopted in Germany : a view, which in the end we are convinced, will 

 prevail everywhere. It is only by denying altogether the existence of bituminous 

 shale, that the present substance can with any consistency be entitle! to the name 

 of coal. Specimens may be seen in the collection of the Canadian Institute. 



E. J. C. 



ETHNOLOGY AND ARCH /E O LOGY 



CRANIA OF THE ANCIENT BRITONS. 



Mr. Joseph Barnard Davis submitted to the British Association at the Glasgow 

 meetin", a series of remarks and deductions relative to the forms of the Crania of the 

 Ancient Britons chiefly founded upon his observations of a skull derived from the 



