396 Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



with respect to the same kind of water, within limits of considerable- 

 extent ; and it is never certain that the water operated on has not 

 met in its course, either above or below the soil, with substances 

 which have altered and changed the proportions in which these salts 

 enter into its composition. — L'lnstitut, No. 851. 



ON EMERY, AND THE MINERALS ASSOCIATED WITH IT. 



M. J. Laurence Smith has read a memoir before the French Aca- 

 demy on the Emery of Asia Minor, its geological and commercial 

 relations, and on the minerals associated with it. 



Previously to 1846, emery had not been stated to exist either in 

 Asia Minor or the surrounding islands, except perhaps in the Isle of 

 Samos, where it was mentioned as occurring by r Tournefort in his 

 Travels in the seventeenth century. Numerous and important de- 

 posits are now known in these countries : and Mr. Smith, by direc- 

 tion of the Turkish government, has explored them. He has chiefly 

 examined this mineral in situ near the ruins of the ancient city of 

 Magnesia on the Meander, and at first at the village of Gumuch, at 

 the foot of a mountain of the same name. 



With respect to this deposit, it is to be observed that all the sur- 

 rounding rocks and country appear to belong to the ancient series. 

 The limestone is entirely free from fossils, and possesses metamorphic 

 characters ; it lies upon schists, of which the micaceous appears to 

 be the most abundant, and this further to the north occurs in contact 

 with gneiss. In some situations there are found in the limestone, 

 deposits of siliceous schists containing small fragments of titaniferous 

 iron. The limestone is of a light blue colour, passing into granular 

 marble. Towards the south, the rocks by their decomposition pro- 

 duce lofty precipices, which add much to the picturesque appearance 

 of the country. The emery is found in different places in the moun- 

 tain of Gumuch; it is, however, most abundant upon a part of the 

 summit, at about a league and a half from the village of Gumuch, 

 and 2000 feet above the level of the valley. This summit commands 

 the magnificent plain of the Meander, the tortuous windings of which 

 look as if they had been drawn upon a map. The emery occurs 

 scattered on the soil in angular fragments of a deep colour. Enor- 

 mous blocks weighing many tons project from the surface of the 

 soil ; and by digging, blocks of emery of different sizes are met with. 

 On going a little deeper the rock which contains it is arrived at. 



On breaking the marble which in this place projects from the soil, 

 fragments of emery are always found. 



Sometimes this mineral forms a mass of several feet long and wide, 

 and they are now working a mass which is from thirty to sixty feet 

 square ; all the rocks which they obtain are emery. The spaces 

 which occur, which are merely fissures formed by the contraction of 

 this substance at its formation, are filled with earth containing oxide 

 of iron. In some places the masses are consolidated by carbonate 

 of lime introduced by infiltration, and which must not be confounded 

 with the marble which is the original gangue of the emery. In 



