330 
THE  NEW  ZEALAND  IRON  SAND. 
little  above  the  ordinary,  and  completely  volatilizes,  condensing 
in  well-formed  brilliant  needles.  Almost  insoluble  in  cold 
water,  and  but  little  soluble  in  boiling  water,  it  dissolves  freely 
in  alcoiiol,  ether,  and  nitro-benzine.  It  dissolves,  also,  in  hot 
acetic  acid,  and  crystallises  out  again  on  cooling.  Several  ana- 
lyses of  specimens  prepared  by  different  methods  led  the  authors 
(MM.  Cloez  and  Guignet,  Bulletin  de  la  Societe  Chimique  de 
Paris,  No.  1,  p.  3)  to  the  following  as  the  formula  of  the  new 
acid  : — C^^H^^N 0^)02,  and  induce  them  to  regard  it  as  a  pro- 
duct of  the  oxidation  of  nitro-cinnamic  acid  CjgH^(NO^)0^.  In 
conclusion,  they  remark  that  they  have  experimented  with  com- 
mercial nitro-benzine,  and  the  new  acid  may  come  of  the  oxida- 
tion of  some  foreign  body  in  that  article. — Chem.  News,  London, 
May  1],  1861. 
THE  NEW  ZEALAND  IRON  SAND. 
The  following  correspondence  on  this  subject  has  taken  place 
in  the  columns  of  the  Engineer : — Mr.  Mushet  writes:  "Sir, — 
Having  received  from  Captain  Morshead,  for  the  purpose  of 
converting  into  steel,  about  three  tons,  of  the  Taranaki  metalli- 
ferous sand,  nothing  surprised  me  more  than  the  almost  perfect 
purity  of  this  sand  ;  of  which  98-25  per  cent,  was  strongly  at- 
tracted by  the  magnet,  and  1-75  per  cent,  only  of  quartz  sand 
remained  unacted  upon.  The  analysis  of  this  ore  by  Messrs. 
Johnson  and  Matthey  showed  the  ore  to  be  composed  of : — 
Oxide  of  iron  8845 
Titanic  acid  1143 
Loss  12 
100-00 
Recently  I  have  received  from  a  party  not  interested  in  the 
matter,  a  fair  sample  of  the  Taranaki  titanium  sand,  and  which 
I  find  is  composed  as  under: — 
Magnetic  iserine  sand  ....  33-60 
Non-magnetic  ilmenite  sand  .  .  .  61-27 
Sea  sand         ......  5-13 
100-00 
