, 
2 
% 
: 
Geology and Natural History. 489 
6. Jelly-like carbonaceous mineral Seisiop Ved bt se te gp 
a peat bed in. - anton, Pennsylvania.—An article b 
Coorrr in the number of the En nginecring and Mising Jour al for 
house of Scranton. This building-site is in the heart of the town, 
upon a square which formerly was a swamp, but some years ago 
was filled with cinder from the iron-works. On excavating for 
the court-house foundations, the cinder, which was five or six feet 
deep, was first removed. ter this, came a bed of excellent peat, 
varying in depth from eight to twelve feet. Below ¥ e peat, a 
stratum of muck separated the peat from the hard-pan below. In 
the muck were veins of the tough biaee jelly, resembling coal in 
aspect, except its gelatinous character. When dried slow] 
solidifies into a hard, brittle st BEE which would be considered 
Goin 
A letter to the editors, from Mr. H. Wright, secretary of the 
Wyoming Historical and "Ge ological Society, dated Wilkesbarre, 
Aug. 1831, states that an analysis made by the State Chemist 
affor 
Bee + 212": Be 66°758 
Volatile ae 9 826 
; 4°012 
aera 19°404 
100°000 
7. Emeralds from Alexander County, North Carolina.—Mr. 
W. E. Hidden, whose important mineralogical labors in North 
et have been previously protester ath in this Journal (xx, 150; 
128, 159, 160; xxii, 21, 179), has recently announced the 
prt very by him of emeralds anes eo northwest of Sta 
ville in Alexander County, North Carolina. The occurrence va 
eryls of unusual beauty and cry stati pimtic interest was made 
own some years since by Mr. J. Adlai Stephenson. Mr. Hid- 
den was led by this fact to make thorough and systematic serge 
in the hope of finding them in place, and he has succeeded i 
finding not only the ordinary beryls but also true emeralds. The 
revailing rock of the region is a feldspathic gneiss with a strike 
.N nd nearly vertical di ip. The surface soil often contains 
crystals ‘of quartz, rutile, tourmaline, .spodumene, beryl, etc., and 
in cross-fractures in the rock beneath, the minerals have "been 
found by Mr. Hidden in place; of these minerals the emerald- 
green spodumene (hiddenite), and the true emeralds have been 
the special objects of search because of their-value as gems. The 
first pocket found has been worked to a deuth of thirty-three feet 
and has yielded largely of spodumene, but sparingly of the emer- 
alds; twelve similar cavities have been found within an area of 
