SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 
567 
MINERALOGY, METALLURGY, AND MINING. 
MINERALOGY. 
Petroleum . — Letters from Upper Canada state that an oil-well which 
some time since ceased to flow has again commenced spouting, and now 
yields from 300 to 400 barrels a-day. A large quantity of oil is also being 
taken from the different wells by pumping, and the inhabitants of the 
district are about to sink a “test- well” of 1,000 feet in depth, to ascertain 
what quantity may be expected to flow from a greater depth than that yet 
reached. Dr. Sterry Hunt says it would appear that the Devonian sand- 
stones of Pennsylvania and North-Eastern Ohio are filled with oil, which 
has risen from the limestone beneath ; while over a great portion of 
Western Canada this limestone was ages ago denuded, and has lost the 
greater part of its petroleum. Mr. Scliorlemmer has analyzed the oil, and 
finds that the chemical constitution of that portion of it which boils below 
120° C. is quite analogous to that of the oil obtained from cannel-tar. 
The rock-oils of other countries appear to possess a somewhat similar 
constitution. 
The Alais Meteorite — Professor Roscoe has examined a fragment of this 
stone, which fell near Alais, in France, in March, 1806. Berzelius, who 
examined it in 1834, stated that it contained an organic carbon compound, 
which turned brown on heating, deposited a black carbonaceous mass, and 
burnt without residue. In 1860 Wohler discovered traces of a hydro-carbon 
in two other meteorites from Hungary and South Africa respectively. 
These facts are remarkable, since in terrestrial matter carbon compounds 
are solely the results of vital action. Professor Roscoe found that the 
Alais stone contains at least a half per cent, of a hydro-carbon, which is 
deposited in crystals when the mass is treated with ether, together with 
more than one per cent, of free sulphur. 
Castor, a mineral discovered by Breithaupt, in Elba, is a silicate of 
lithia and alumina. It has been lately re-examined by 51. Des Cloizeaux, 
who finds that it must be considered as a variety of petalite, as conjectured 
by G. Rose, and that it crystallizes in the oblique system. He also finds 
that castor closely resembles triphane in crystalline form, whilst it differs 
from that mineral in cleavage, specific gravity, optical properties, and 
chemical composition. 
Astrophyllite . — A mineral hitherto scarcely known has been recently 
described by Pisani. It is a variety of mica, found in the laminated 
felspar of a Norwegian syenite at Brevig. It occurs in six-sided tabular 
crystals, often grouped into stars. Cleavage, basal. It is transparent in 
thin sheets. Colour, bronze-yellow ; streak, golden yellow. Hardness, 
about 3; specific gravity, 3’324. Before the blov'pipe it melts easily with 
intumescence to a black magnetic enamel. Heated with carbonate of soda 
and nitre it gives a strong reaction of manganese. The spectroscope dis- 
tinguishes lime, soda, potash, and lithia. Hydrochloric acid attacks it, 
with deposition of silica. It differs from most micas in containing very 
little alumina and much manganese and iron. 
