FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE. 
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 Glasgow 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 difficulty 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. E. S., Glasgow. 
Human Remains 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, which are said to be more plenti- 
ful towards the edge of the valley. The list of these comprises : — Bos pt^i- 
migenius, B. longifrons, Cervus capreolus, C. elaphus, Equus, Sus scrofa. 
Cam's lupus, Lutra vulgaris, Ursus spelcpus. Castor EuropcEus, Arvicola 
(water-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. 
rOEEIGN INTELLIGEXCE. 
In a former number of the ' Geologist ' (vol. v. p. 74) the discovery of 
the presence of rubidium and cfesium 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 chlorurets 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. 120; Tviipert 
Jones's ' Lecture on the Geology of Newbury,' 185-t ; and ' Memoirs of the Geological 
Survey : Explanation of Sheet 12,' by Messrs. Bristow and ^Vhilaker, 1802. 
