00 GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE OF THE 



thoceraiite;* the same schist, at the Galley rock 

 commencement of the Cherokee settlement,) also 

 discloses organic reliquise of the same class, f hut do 

 bivalve shells. A beautiful hone-slate appears to 

 alternate with the other schistose formations, in the 

 vicinity of the hot springs, of the Washita, and is 

 noticed in the journal of Hunter and Dunbar. Its 

 pure whiteness, when recent, is a character quite pe- 

 culiar; still, by its slaty texture, and inferior hard- 

 ness, besides the abscence of organic reliquiae, it can 

 by no means be confounded with hornstone, which, 

 in many respects, it resembles.^ From the neigh- 



* This shell appears to belong to the genus Raphanister 

 of Monlfort's Conchyliologie Systematique, vol. I see p. 338, 

 hut very distinct from the species there figured. 



t One of them with a moniliform flexuous appearance and 

 of the length of six or eight inches, bears some resemblance 

 to the IchthyosarcoUte of Desmarest, figured in the Journal de 

 Physique for July, 1817, in plate II. figure 9 and 10. 



| To avoid ambiguity and confusion, it seems to me ne- 

 cessary to designate the " hone-stone" of the Washita by a 

 particular name, as nothing similar to it. appears hitherto de- 

 scribed. I shall therefore, in reference to its prevailing color, 

 give it the trivial name of GALACTfTE. 



This siliceous mineral, which in many respects resembles 

 Hornstone or Chert, is distinguished by its remarkably even, 

 slaty cleavage both in the large masses and minute fragments; 

 its cross fracture is largely conchoidal, and destitute of lustre: 

 fragments, about a line in thickness, are strongly translucent. 

 Its hardness is such, when pure, as readily to give fire with 



