NOTES AND QUERIES. 
463 
Cliurdihill quarry is niinod ; ami, I)('li(;vc mc, tlio men who fiiul aiiyiliiiig 
(here are well deserviiis' of t heir pay on a liberal scale, for it is almost impossible 
to find any sliirlisli, nnless by many hours of slavish labour, or by great f^ood 
luck in breaking up all the debris, lying aljout the quarry — almost as hojieless 
as Valwopi/ge hunting. We could (ind notliing yesterday, in four liours, but 
one indifferent encrinite, and a few fragments of starfish, which, however, we 
jirescrve witli care. My friend is so disgusted, that he says lie shall not 
trouble the quarry again. — 11. LioirrnouY. 
Mountain Limestone Fossils. — Sir, — Have the Mountain Limestone 
fossils (mollnsca) been described and figured ? When ? By whom ? Hugh 
Miller (I quote from nienu)ry, 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 the Coal Measures ; whether the Lime- 
stone fossils were described 1 know not. Since I i)ave been in this locality, 
rather more than a year, I have collected about three hundred specimens of 
Limestone fossil mollnsca, including, I know not, how many genera. 1 want 
now to know the names of them, so that I may arrauge 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 thanks, 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 "First Traces of Life" 
lassiu'cyoul demurred, "because it was so thin;" I have been, however, 
compensated by the " thickness" of the contents. No book that 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 pleasure every time I 
opened the book afresh. — Yours faithfully, G. 11. Vine, Castlemaine-streetj 
Athloue, Ireland. 
There is no published separate list of the fossils of the Mountain Limestone. 
Ure figures several in his "History of Ruthergleu;" 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 
Kouinck, in his "Animaux Fossiies du Terrain Carbonifere de la Belgique." 
Others are to be met with in different works on various localities. 
Cryolite in Manufacttjees. — Sir, — Can you be good enough to give me 
any acco\mt 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 I 
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 
Teunaut. There was also a paper read before the Society of Ai-ts, ou "Alumi- 
nium," by Mr. Forster, 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 of 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 Mavmolajo. Coloured ala})aster is also found in son\e of the 
PHoeene beds of Tuscany. Gypsum is widely distributed wnere serpentine has 
pierced limestones, as at Matarana and Jauo. 
At Jano the Palaeozoic coal is represented by isolated plants converted into 
anthracite ; it is the only locality on the Italian continent where Carboniferous 
