The Stady of JSfdturdl Palimpsests. — Grimsley. 15 
On American and foreign railroad iron. Means by which United 
States railroad iron can be sold as cheaply, and on as good terms of 
credit, as the Welsh railroad irons. Rail Road Record, ii, p. 582. Min- 
ing Magazine, N. Y., in, p. 570-8. 
On the Black Band iron ore of Ohio. Its abundance. Published in 
the Mining Chronicle. 
1855. 
Report of the mineral resources available along the Pittsburgh, Mays- 
ville & Cincinnati R. R. [To Thos. W. Peacock, President.] 
Report on the discipline in the U. S. Military Academy. 
General Report of the Board of Visitors at the U. S. Military Acad- 
emy, June, 1855. 
Report on the coal supply of Cincinnati, and a consideration of all the 
available resources of supply, with the cost of delivery, and qualities of 
the coals. 
Notes on the iron region and furnaces of southern Ohio. Am. Min- 
ing Chronicle, vol. x, p. 68, Sejjt. 1st, 1855. 
1859. 
Report on the State House artesian well at Columbus, O. 42 pp. 
THE STUDY OF NATURAL PALIMPSESTS. 
By G. P. Grimsley, Ph. D. 
Paleontology has revealed a long life history from Cam- 
brian time to the present and has vainly attempted to read 
the obscure pages of the earlier history of Archean time. 
Battled at every turn the search was abandoned, but a new 
science has boldl}^ entered the field and the mysterious pages 
furnish a liistory for the petroi/rapher M^hich in interest rivals 
that of the paleontologist. 
This record is not written in fossil letters but in inineral 
characters, which so long have been meaningless neoglyphics. 
In making the so-called pre-historic record nature has been 
economical in materials and in space. She has erased some 
portions of the ancient record with the cleansing force of fire, 
rewriting on the same tablets of stone the records of new 
conditions. 
The discovery that many of the records of ancient liistori- 
cal time were written on the erased parchments of an earlier 
day and that a careful investigation would reveal many of 
the first records, was a historical triumph. The students of 
ancient languages have enriched the world by their pains- 
taking search through old literary palimpsests. In the 
