1 8 82.] Mineralogy. 1 6 1 



North America, and for a long series of years a great deal must 

 remain almost untouched in Asia, Africa, South America, and in 

 the islands of the Pacific ocean. If, in the far future, the day 

 should come when such work shall be undertaken, the process of 

 doing so must necessarily be slow, partly for want of proper maps, 

 and possibly in some regions partly for the want of trained geolo- 

 gists. Palaeontologists must always have ample work in the dis- 

 covery and description of new fossils, marine, fresh-water, and truly 

 terrestial ; and besides common stratigraphical geology, geologists 

 have still an ample field before them in working out many of 

 those physical problems which form the true basis of physical 

 geography in every region of the earth. Of the history of the 

 earth there is a long past, the early chapters of which seem to be 

 lost forever, and we know little of the future except that it appears 

 that " the stir of this dim spot which men call earth," as far as 

 geology is concerned, shows " no sign of an end." 



Phytocollite, a new mineral from Scranton, Pa. — This name 

 has been given 2 to a very curious, jelly-like mineral recently found 

 near the bottom of a peat bog at Scranton, Pa. An excavation 

 for a new court-house had cut through a peat bog, below which 

 was a deposit of glacial till. Near the bottom of the bog, in a 

 carbonaceous mud, or " swamp muck," there occur irregular veins, 

 of varying thickness and inclination filled with a black, homo- 

 geneous jelly-like substance, elastic to the touch. This substance 

 becomes tougher on exposure to the air, and finally becomes as 

 hard as coal. When thus dried, it is brittle, has a conchoidal 

 fracture and brilliant lustre, and closely resembles jet. It is nearly 

 insoluble in alcohol and ether, but is entirely soluble in caustic 

 potash, forming a deep reddish-brown solution, from whence it 

 can be again precipitated on the addition of an acid. It has a 

 specific gravity of 1.032 and burns with a bright flame. After 

 naving been dried at 21 2°, it has the follow " 

 cording to the analysis of J. M. Stinson : 



56.^83 



yielding the empirical formula C 10 H^ O w . 



In its mode of occurrence and in general appearance, tl 

 stance closely resembles Dopplerite, but differs from that 1 



l Edited by Professor Henry Carvill Lkw is, Ac a lemy of Natural Sen nc 

 2 II. C. Lewis, Pro \mci Phihi S . Dec. 2, iSSl. 



