314 Chronicles of Science. [April, 



Kegarding the iron which can be dissolved out, as accidental, and 

 digesting it in acids, we have — 





(i) 



(2) 



Naxas best selected. 



Alumina 



60-4 



59-05 



62 3 



Protoxide of Iron . 



39-6 



40-95 



37-7 



It is said that practical trials of the Chester emery in the large 

 armouries and machine shops, have proved it to bo fully equal in value 

 to the well-known emery of Naxos.* 



Petroleum in California. — Professor Silliman recently visited a 

 newly-discovered petroleum region, which he thus describes in his 

 Report : — " Ten miles north of Buenaventura, there is a mountain 

 ridge 2,000 feet in height, extending for 13 miles from E. to W., 

 which consists in part of bituminous shales, supposed to be either of 

 the Cretaceous or Tertiary period. The dip of the layer is 70° to 

 80° to the north. From these shales, mineral oil comes out in many 

 places, and at some points very abundantly. One of these wells is 

 30 feet in diameter, and is full of tar-like oil, boiling with the 

 escape of marsh gas. There is also an area of asphaltum three- 

 fourths of a mile long by half-a-mile wide, exuding tar and rock oil 

 at numerous points, besides several oil springs, the places of dis- 

 charge in all exceeding twenty. The range of bituminous shales 

 occurring at intervals for a hundred and fifty miles, and also as far 

 north as Glenroy, in Santa Clara County, or about 80 miles from San 

 Francisco.f 



Some interesting analyses of several varieties of lead ores from the 

 mines of Pontgibaut (Puy-de-D6me) have been made by M. Charles 

 Mene and M. L. Courrat, of Lyons, the results of which have been 

 communicated to the Academie des Sciences of Paris. The minerals 

 examined were the Sulphate of Lead (Anglesite), Arsenio phosphate of 

 Chloride of Lead, and the crystallized Carbonate of Lead. For the 

 result obtained we must refer our readers to the ordinary sources 

 through which the communications of the Academy are given to the 

 public. ! 



Metallurgy. 



During the first quarter of 1865 there has been little of novelty to 

 record. The extension of the application of machinery to puddling 

 has been steadily going on. Mr. Menelaus, the manager of the iron 

 works at Dowlais, appears to have been very successful in the experi- 

 ments which he has made ; and as soon as a new set of furnaces, — now 

 in course of construction, — are in a fit state for use, he invites the iron- 

 masters and managers of works to some public experiments to be then 

 made at Dowlais. 



We learn that the preliminaries for a patent have been taken by 

 Mr. John Arthur Phillips, for a process of great simplicity, by means 



* ' Silliman's Journal,' vol. xxxix. p. 87. 

 t 'Silliman's Journal,' vol. xxxix. p. 101. 

 j 'Les Mondes,' 6 liv. 9 February, 1865. 



