S63 
Scientific Intelligence. — Mineralogy. 
crayon for writing upon glass ; the traces seem effaced^ when a: 
piece of woollen cloth is passed over them, but they re^-appear im- 
mediately when moistened by the breath, and again disappear 
when the glass becomes dry. Steatite is not so easily effaced as 
chalk, and does not, like that substance, change its colours. Tai- 
lors and embroiderers also prefer it to chalk, for marking silk. 
It possesses the property of uniting with oils and fat bodies, and 
enters into the composition of the greater number of the balls 
which are employed for cleaning silks and woollen cloths ; it also 
forms the basis of some preparations of paint. It is employed 
also for giving lustre to marble, serpentine and gypseous stones. 
Mixed with oil, it is used to polish mirrors of metal and crystal. 
When leather, recently prepared, is sprinkled with steatite, to 
give it colour, and afterwards, when the whole is dry, it is rub- 
bed several times with a piece of horn, the leather assumes a 
very beautiful polish. Steatite is also used in the preparation 
of glazed paper ; it is reduced to very fine powder, and spread 
out upon the paper ; or it is better to mix it previously with the 
colouring matter. The glaze is then given to the paper with a 
hard brush. It facilitates the action of screws, and from its 
unctuosity, may be employed with much advantage, for dimi- 
nishing the friction of the parts of machines which are made of 
metal. 
GEOLOGY. 
17. Professor Bucklands Notice of the Hy (Enas' Den near 
Torquay. — Professor Buckland has lately sent to Professor Ja- 
meson, for the College Museum, several specimens of bone 
from the hyenas’ den at Kent’s Hole, near Torquay, all of 
which he considers as bearing most decided marks of teeth and 
gnawing upon them. Three of these bones (Nos. 4, 5, 6.) are 
splinters, which appear to have been gnawed and nibbled over 
and over again, after they were split off from the cylindrical 
bones, of which they formed a part. Other splinters have not 
been gnawed after such fracture ; but of these none have been 
sent at present, — Professor Buckland’s sole object being to pro- 
duce conviction in those who deny the fact of the marks of teeth 
and gnawing being visible on the bones found in our English 
hyenas’ dens. Numbers 1, 2, 3, are portions of cylindrical 
bones, from which both extremities or condyles have been gnaw- 
