317 



What had become of the bituminous and gaseous matter was in doubt 

 till the discovery of this sandstone showed it; its coarse porous character 

 facilitating the impregnation. When under red heat in a crucible it flamed, 

 losing 20 per cent, of weight ; but remaining compact, and becoming quite 

 white. A professional chemist in Grlasgow reports it as yielding only five 

 gallons of oil to the ton, it therefore probably contains other volatile matter 

 of a light and gaseous description. 



This rock would not pay for the working under twenty gallons per ton ; 

 and from the greater diificulty of extraction from sandstone, a bituminous 

 shale, such as the Torbane mineral, though it only yielded twenty gallons 

 to the ton, would be equal in value to sandstone giving upwards of 

 thirty. 



A similar bituminous rock has been found in two other localities, 

 within about two miles of this ; one of these is in a less stratified state, the 

 mineral tar oozing from it, of a black colour, the other is a hard "kingle," 

 of a brown colour, in close proximity to splint or hard coal, from 50 to 

 60 fathoms down. — W. R. S., Grlasgow. 



fluiviAN E-EMAiNS IN Alluvium. — The alluvium of the Kennet is a well- 

 marked deposit, and forms large and valuable water-meadows. Dr. Buck- 

 land, who records human remains in it, says it is "much mixed with 

 minute crystals of selenite and a small quantity of carbonate of lime, and 

 abounds with the bones and horns of oxen, red-deer, roebucks, horses, wild 

 boars, and beavers. A human skull, of high antiquity, has also been found 

 in it, at a depth of many feet, at the contact of the peat with a substratum 

 of shell-marl. It was accompanied by rude instruments of stone.* Along 

 the northern edge of this peat-bog, there is a considerable deposit of marl, 

 mixed with calcareous tufa . . . from two to ten feet in thickness, and 

 frequently interstratified with beds of peat, varying from six inches to 

 three or four feet in thickness." In the neighbourhood of Newbury the 

 lower marl contains mammalian remains, w-hich are said to be more plenti- 

 ful towards the edge of the valley. The list of these comprises : — Bos pri- 

 migenius, B. longlfrons, Cervus capreolus, C. elaphus, Equus, Sus scrqfa, 

 Canis lupus, Lutra vulgaris, Ursus spelceus. Castor Europceus, Arvicola 

 (w^ater-rat). The peat is dug in places for fuel, and, with shell-marl, but 

 not for manure : in it are found remains of oak, alder, willow, fir, birch, 

 hazel, and of mosses, reeds, and equiseta. 



4 



FOREIGN INTELLIOENCE. 



In a former number of the 'G-eologist' (vol. v. p. 74) the discovery of 

 the presence of rubidium and caesium in the mica of Zinnwald, Bohemia, 

 was mentioned. Since then, M. E. Seybel, in his extensive chemical 

 manufactory at Liesing, having submitted 800 lbs. of this mica to chemical 

 treatment, has obtained from it carbonate of lithium, and above 5 ounces 

 of the chlorurcts of rubidium and caesium. This Zinnwald mica, con- 

 taining these metals in larger proportions than any other substance at 

 present known (nearly 3 per cent.), may prove particularly adapted for the 



* See Dr. Bucldand's paper, Geol. Transact.) 2nd series, vol. ii., p. 1:20 ; Rupert 

 Jones's ' Lecture on the Geology of Newbury,' 1854 ; and ' Memoirs of the Geological 

 Surrey : Explanation of Sheet 12,' by Messrs. Bristow and Whitaker, 1862. 



