Geology and Natural History. 423 
the bird were projected on three planes. It is hoped that this 
new method of study of the flight of birds will add largely to 
our knowledge of the kinematics of flying.”— Comptes Rendus, 
No. 6, Feb. 7, 1887, p. 3238. Tour: 
9. Upon the Magnetic effect of Karthquakes.—At various mag- 
netic observatories on the continent of Europe, slight disturb- 
ances were registered which apparently were connected in time 
with the late earthquakes. M. Mascart believes that a more care- 
ful examination of the records of different observations will show 
the connection which may exist between the two disturbances.— 
Comptes Rendus, No. 10, March 7, 1887, p. 634. Tee 
10. Heat of the Sun.—F RoxLIcH communicates the second por- 
tion of his voluminous paper on the measure of the sun’s heat. 
In the course of the paper he examines Langley’s hypothesis that 
the absorption of heat is proportional to pressure of air, and does 
not find a suitable agreement between his own observations and 
records of the barometer. He concludes, therefore, that the hy- 
pothesis is not true. The observations show that the heat of the 
.sun is subject to important changes. The question whether an 
increase of the sun’s heat follows a lessening of the sun’s spots 
cannot be ‘decided without a more careful study.—Annalen der 
Physik und Chemie, No. 4, 1887, pp. 582-620. bis. Oe, 
Il. GroLtocy AND NatrurdAt History. 
1. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 
New York.—No. 8, of vol. i, issued Dec. 28, contains a notice of 
investigations on Lower Silurian geology along the eastern shore 
of Lake Champlain, by Professor M. Seely and Pres. E. Brainerd 
of Middlebury, Vt., with a description of new fossils by R. P. 
Whitfield; and, by the same, a notice of a new fossil, probably a 
sponge related to Dictyophyton, from the slates at Kenwood, 
near Albany, N. Y. 
2. Brief notices of some recently described Minerals. Caraco- 
LITE. — This mineral was investigated by the late Professor 
Websky of Berlin, but was not announced until November, 1886, 
shortly after his sudden death. Its characters are as follows: 
Orthorhombic with pseudohexagonal symmetry due to twinning. 
The crystals appear as obtuse double hexagonal pyramids with 
peism, resembling witherite, to which it is also related in its axial 
relations, viz: @:6:c=0°5843:1:0°4213. The colorless crystals 
of caracolite are associated with minute bright blue cubes of the 
rare species percylite, and the material analyzed consisted of a 
mixture of the two species in about the ratio of 6:1. The com- 
position deduced for pure caracolite is expressed by the formula 
PbHG1O + Na,SO,, requiring: Pb 51°56, Na 11°46, 8S 7:97, Cl 8°84, 
H 0°25, O 19:°92=100. The mineral is named from the locality 
Caracoles, Chili.i—Ber. Ak. Berlin, p. 1045, Nov., 1886. 
Kattopuitite. In an extended article upon the ejected masses 
from Monte Somma, Mierisch describes a mineral allied to nephe- 
