NOTES AND QUERIES. 



419 



What is their signification ? Again, on the compass side of the clinometer is a 

 table divided into vertical columns, the first marked degrees, the second contain- 

 ing parts of the inch, corresponding to the degrees. How do they correspond 

 ■with each other ? — Sigma. 



The mark 1 ] 1 signifies that the angle is such that the base is equal to the 

 perpendicular ; 1 in 2 that the base is double the perpendicular, and so on. 

 The second column does not signify parts of an inch, but for a slope of one 

 dec^ree the rise is one in fifty-seven (one foot in fifty-seven feet, or one inch 

 in fifty-seven inches, etc., etc.). Eor two degrees the slope or gradient would 

 be one in twenty-eight and a-haK, and so on. 



HocHSTETTEB, ON CiiiNESE EossiLS. — Groups of crystals and organic re- 

 mains are higldy valued in China as ornaments of opulent apartments, and 

 fetch most exorbitant prices. A group of common quartz crystals, of very 

 common appearance, was offered to Dr. Hoclistetter at the price of twenty 

 Mexican dollars (about £4 4s.). Plates of dark brown limestone embedding 

 splendid specimens of Orthoceratites, are, when polished and framed, highly 

 esteemed as ornamental furniture for state apartments. They are said to be 

 frequent at Yunnan. Their Chinese name of " pa^oda-stone," adopted by Mr. 

 Muirhead in his "Manual of Geology," published in the Chinese language, is 

 derived from the general opinion that these Orthoceratites — showing indeed in 

 their alveoles and in the septj)6 going through them a certain similitude with 

 the structure of these buildings — are formed underground in places on whose 

 surface the towers of a pagoda project their shadows. 



Fossil bones and teeth of mammalia, as also tiger bones are much in request 

 among the Chinese, on account of their supposed medical virtues, and are con- 

 sequently sold by apothecaries at most reasonable prices. Two other sorts of 

 organic remains occupy also a conspicuous place in the materia medica of the 

 Chinese, and are sold in a pulverized state at about Is. 3d. the ounce. One of 

 them is the " stone-bird" (Sa-ji), a brachiopod from the Devonian Limestone 

 of Tche-Saifn-tsi ; the other is a crab, extremely well preserved in a (probably 

 cretaceous) clay-marl, from Hainan Kukwang and Tchc-kwang-tsi. 



The material generally used for ornamental objects is the well-known 

 Chmese steatite in its natural state, or artificially tinged with the most diversified 

 colours. At Hing-po (one hundred and eighty sea miles south of Shanghai) 

 and Tse-kong-sa, where these objects are principally fabricated, they are ex- 

 tremely cheap, but in very low esteem compared with objects of crystalline 

 limestone or marble. Objects made of "tade" or "yo" (a denomination indis- 

 criminately used for any mineral substance of a hardness equal to that of 

 quartz, or at least superior to that of marble) fetch enormous prices. Trifles 

 are sold for 8s. 3d. to 21s. ; larger figures, dishes, vases, &c., are not to be 

 had for less than £2 2s., £4 4s., and even if particularly conspicuous, £105. 

 Eurther inquiries are necessary to establish a mineralogical determination be- 

 tween several green substances comprised under the general denomination of 

 "yo," and to distinguish how far their colour is natural or artificial. 



Notes on the Red and White Chalk of Yoekshire.— Having lately 

 taken some trouble in getting specimens of the Hed and the White Chalk of 

 Yorkshire, and in examining them chemically and microscopically, I was 

 interested in obtaining, with the aid of Mr. Deane, of Clapham, and of Mr. Kor- 

 man, some Foraminifera from both of these hard varieties of chalk. 



Very little impression can be made on this indurated chalk by washing it 

 with water and a brush, the usual plan adopted for obtaining Microzoa from 

 chalk ; but Mr. Deane succeeded in breaking up the Red Chalk in the follow- 

 ing method. He says, " Take any efflorescent salt (I prefer subcarbonate of 

 soda, for the chance of its acting a little upon the silica) ; make a strong 

 solution ; boil the hard clialk therein till it is fully saturated ; remove it from 



