1850.] Orange yellow Earth from the Sikkim Territory. 143 



Second excavation in W&di Araba. 

 The second excavation is at the mouth of the Wddi Aschar el 

 Bahrieh, and is 164 ft. deep. The sinking of the pit was commenced 

 at the foot of a range of low sandstone hills, the elevation of which was 

 about 60 ft. above the surface of the Wddi. The rate of sinking is 

 about a foot per diem. The strata cut through are as follow : 



Feet. Inches. 



1 Beds of an hydrous plaster (castainite) traversed 

 longitudinally by layers of Sal gemme, each about 

 from 1 to 3 inches thick. It is a pulverulent light 



sulphate of lime, and of a perfect whiteness 3 „ 



2 Bed, silicious sandstone — containing masses of 



white sandstone 90 „ 



3 Coloured marls (marnes irisees) 20 „ 



4 Variegated red sandstones (gres rouges big ares), 



with their layers of red ferruginous marls 51 „ 



Total feet 164 



Examination and analysis of an orange yellow Earth brought from the 

 Sikkim Territory, by Dr. Campbell, Darjeeling, and said to be used 

 there as a cure for Goitre. — By Henry Piddington, Esq, Curator, 

 Museum Economic Geology. 



This earth is apparently nothing but what is usually termed a com- 

 mon yellow-ochery soil, i. e. a soil in which the iron (generally the 

 colouring principle of soils), is mostly in the state of the hydrated car- 

 bonate of the protoxide, as so often found in its earthy and nodular 

 ores. Properly it should be described as an orange-coloured soil. 



But as it is said to be used in the cure of the unsightly disease 

 Goitre, though with what success or how administered we are not told, 

 it becomes of interest to know if it contains any thing beyond the usual 

 constituents of the poor yellow ferruginous soils, as also what is the pro- 

 portion of the hydrated carbonate of iron, which one supposes a priori 

 to be the active principle. 



For I am not aware that, hitherto, the yellow-ochre which is the purest 

 form of the hydrated carbonate, (the officinal preparation being always 



