BOLLAEET — >'EW MASS OP METEORIC IROX. 



89 



beds can be traced through Hope on to Hathersege • and along the 

 brook side, below Mam Tor, a good section is displayed, ^Yhere 

 thej are seen abuttiug against the lower limestones. Along the 

 stream at Hope good sections are also exposed, and they are seen in 

 several places on the road to Bradwell. The bottom beds of the 

 shales are intercalated with stony bands composed of the remnants of 

 encrinite-stems and fragments of shells, and have been caused by the 

 denudation of the limestone during their formation. The bottom 

 shales are rich m Av-iciilo-pectens, Goniatites, Posidonia, etc., and the 

 nnmerous iron-stone bands higher up the hill are rich in small gonia- 

 tites, which are frequently found pyritized. 



The most striking pecQliarity of these shales is the fact that about 

 a couple of miles from Castleton, where they rest upon the limestone, 

 the bitumen which has steeped them has also percolated and oozed 

 out into the limestone, turning it quite black, as also the fossils 

 which, when split open, are often seen to contain a little globule of 

 bitumen. Here we see the decomposed remains of two subdivisions 

 separated by a great gulf of time, mingling together, both testifying 

 to the great law of death which has prevailed since the dawn of life. 

 When the fossils of the lim.estone are cleft open, they are often seen 

 to contain a little globule of bitumen. Do not all the labours of the 

 geologist prove that death is as much a natural lavr as that of birth, 

 and that creation has been concomitant with extinction, as with indi- 

 viduals has been life and death r 



NOTES OX A XEAY MASS OF METEORIC lEON EBOM 

 THE CORDILLERA OF COPIAPO, CHILE. 



By Wm. Bollaert, F.R.G.S., 



Cor. 3fem. Univ. Chile and Amer. Ethnological Society, etc. 



Tliis was found by a muleteer, in June, 1858, when passing the 

 Cordillera from Catamarca to Copiapo, and brought by him to the 

 latter city. He took it to be a rodado, or piece of silver-ore that had 

 been broken from a vein and rounded by being washed with stones, 

 say in the bed of a river ; but on its being examined by Dr. David 

 Garcia (a pupil of Domeyko), at Copiapo, he pronounced it to be a 

 mass of meteoric iron, 



Dr. D. Garcia is the 

 manager of the " Tran- 

 sito" maquina or silver 

 amalgamating works, 

 and has this specimen 

 in his possession. Mr. 

 Abbott tells me it is 

 considered a most inte- 

 resting specimen, being 

 so perfect (not a broken 

 fragment), and whole, 



TOL. T. 



Meteorite from Copiapo. 



IT 



