
440 PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 
e name Orarians (from ora, a coast), in reference to their universal 
coastwise distribution. 
Va 
ution. 
rof. ALBERT S. BICKMORE read a paper ** On the Distribution of Coal, 
Iron, Mercury, Tin, and the precious metals, in China. Prof. B. showed 
that coal occurs from place to place over the whole of China proper, and 
that iron is found in the north of China, especially in the Province of 
Shansi, where the ore is obtained from which the steel used in the manu- 
lamps more than 160 years ago. The Chinese name for it, ** Oil of Stone,” 
is identical with ours. 
ada, following the Merrimac river. It was at first referred to the Quebec 
group, but he thought the rocks distinct. 'The gold was found in 1864 in . 
the rocks, by Mr. Henry Wurtz, at Lima, N. H. The rock is a black clay 
slate, with quartz veins containing iron pyrites, ankerite and galena 
Dr c 
The limit of upright tree growth is marked with a singular abruptness. 
He explained this by supposing that the so called timber line marks the 
extreme point of minimum winter temperature, below which no exposed 
1 tha 
habit of growth, a late period of flowering, and early seeding, the forms 
being almost exclusively perennial. 
The alpine flora is represented by thirty-four natural orders, of which 
thirty-one belong to phenogamous plants, the remaining three include 
the er orders of Cryptogams; of the latter the ferns are represented 
by asingle species (Cryptogramna acrostichoides R. Br.), not exclusively 
alpine. Mosses are numerously represented, but are still comparatively 
.. The alpine area lying between the thirty-seventh and forty-first par- 
allel of latitude, is from 1200 to 1500 square miles in extent. As a sani- 


