456 Literary and Scientific Gleanings. 
must be relegated to the Upper Eocene, instead of the 
Miocene epoch as is usually done. 
We learn from the 7zmes that the exports of coal from 
the United Kingdom amounted last year to 9,616,244 tons, 
as compared with 9,170,477 tons in 1865, and 8,800,420 
tons in 1864. The exports to France presented a very 
large increase last year, having footed up to 1,904,091 tons, 
as compared with 1,589,707 tons in 1865, and 1,447,494 
tons in 1864. The exports of coal declined last year to 
Prussia and the United States; but they increased to 
Russia, Sweden, Holland, Spain, British India, and other 
parts of the world. The exports of coal have immensely 
increased during the last twenty years, having amounted to 
9,616,244 tons in 1866, as compared with 7,855,115 tons in 
1861, 5,789,779 tons in 1856, 3,468,545 tons in 1851, and 
2,483,161 tons in 1847. The exports of coal to France 
have kept pace with the general increase, having amounted 
to 611,300 tons in 1846, 1,057,500 tons in 1856 and 1,904,090 
tons in 1866. Thevalue of the coal exported has, of course, 
presented a great increase, having been 5,084,000/. in 1866, 
-3,604,790/. in 1861, 2,826,5822. in 1856, 1,302,4734 in 1851, 
and 968,502/. in 1847. 
It is well known that some insects are skilful spinners, 
but it is not known that some of them, says the Mechanics 
Magazine, fabricate iron. A Swedish naturalist, Sjogreen, 
has published a curious memoir on this subject. The in- 
sects in question are almost microscopic ; they live beneath 
certain trees, especially in the province of Smaland, and 
they spin (like silkworms) a kind of ferruginous cocoons, 
which constitute the mineral known under the name of 
“lake ore,” and which is composed of from twenty to sixty 
per cent. of oxide of iron, mixed with manganese, ten per 
cent. of chloric, and some centimetres of phosphoric acid. 
The deposits of this mineral may be two hundred and fif- 
teen yards long and from eighteen to thirty inches thick. 
Sir Roderick Murchison, in a letter to Sir C. H. Rawlin- 
son read at the meeting of the Royal Geographical Society 
on Monday evening, expresses some doubts as to the truth 
of the story told by the Johanna men with respect to the 
murder of Dr. Livingstone, and thinks it may have been 
fabricated as an excuse for their desertion of the traveller. 
Sir C. H Rawlinson however, augurs ill from the fact that, 
although eight or nine months have elapsed since the date 
of the supposed crime, no contradiction has yet reached us. 
A circumstance however, tending to show that the whole 
