NOTES AND QUERIES. 



463 



Cliurcliliill quarry is ruined ; and, believe me, the men who find anything 

 there are well dcservin2; of their jDay on a liberal scale, for it is almost impossible 

 to find any starfish, miless by many hours of slavish labour, or by great good, 

 luck in breaking up all the debris, lying about the quarry — almost as hopeless 

 as 'Palmpijge liunting. We could find nothing yesterday, in four hours, but 

 one indifferent encriuite, and a few fragments of starfish, which, however, we 

 preserve with care. My friend is so disgusted, that he says he shall not 

 trouble the quarry again. — 11. Ligiitbody. 



Mountain Li-Mestone Fossils. — Sm, — Have the Mountain Limestone 

 fossils (mollusca) been described and figured ? When ? By whom ? Hugh 

 Miller (I quote from memory, not having a copy of the Old Red Sandstone 

 by me at present) says old David Ure figured and described, after a manner, 

 every fossil he collected, belonging to tlie Coal Mcasiu'cs ; whether the Lime- 

 stone fossils were described 1 know not. Since I have been in this locality, 

 rather more than a year, I have collected about three hundred specimens of 

 Limestone fossil mollusca, including, I know not, how many genera. I want 

 now to know the names of them, so that I may arrange them according to the 

 directions you advised a brother student some time since. I like not to be- 

 come obtrusive, but I should like very much to enter into correspondence with 

 any fellow labourer in the geological field, where an exchange of thought and a 

 barter of fossils would serve both parties. 



Allow me to express my thaidcs, though the utterance comes from the mouth 

 of a working man, for the new light you have thrown on the geology of the 

 Bottom-rocks. After I had paid five shillings for the " Pirst Traces of Life" 

 I assure you I demurred, " because it was so thin ;" I have been, however, 

 compensated by the " thickness" of the contents. No book tluit I have read 

 during the last year has made me think more than yours. There are some 

 chapters that I have read and re-read with additional pleasiu'c every time I 

 opened the book afresh. — Yours faithfully, G. R. Vine, Castlemainc-street, 

 Athlone, L*eland. 



There is no published separate list of the fossils of the Mountain Limestone. 

 Ure figures several in his " History of Butherglen ;" Phillips, several in the 

 " Geology of Yorkshire," 2nd vol. : a great many are figured by M'Coy, in a 

 work on the Carboniferous fossils of Ireland ; as also many are by Prof. De 

 Koninck, in his " Auimaux Possiles du Terrain Carbonifere de la Belgique." 

 Others are to be met with in different works on various localities. 



Cryolite in Manufactures. — Sir, — Can you be good enough to give me 

 any account of the history of the introduction of Cryolite for use in the manu- 

 factures ? It is just now most interesting in relation to aluminium. I think 1 

 have seen somewhere that it was used on the Continent first in the manufacture 

 of Soap.— J.C.S. 



There was a paper on Cryolite in the Geological Society's Journal, about 

 four years since, by Mr. Taylor, communicated to that society by Professor 

 Tennant. There was also a paper read before the Society of Arts, on "Alumi- 

 nium," by Mr. Porster, the Secretary, about three years since. Some of our 

 readers may be able to give a more definite reply to this query. 



Alabaster and Lignite in Tertiary Rocks op Tuscany. — Pure 

 alabaster appears to be peculiar to Western Tuscany. It occurs in 

 ovoidal masses, often three feet in diameter, in selenitic marls of Miocene age 

 in the Yal di Marmolajo. Coloured alabaster is also found in some of the 

 Pliocene beds of Tuscany. Gypsum is widely distributed wnere serpentine has 

 pierced limestones, as at Matarana and Jano. 



At Jano the Palseozoic coal is represented by isolated plants converted into 

 anthracite ; it is the only locality on the Itahan continent where Carboniferous 



