CRYOLITE. 
199 
connection  with  the  ordinary  white  or  transparent  glass.  Having 
obtained  from  the  factory  of  this  "  hot-cast  porcelain  "  several 
mortars,  funnels  and  evaporating  dishes,  and  tested  them  fully 
and  satisfactorily,  I  am  able  to  state  that  they  all  have  their 
advantages  over  the  ordinary  ware  now  in  use.  The  mortars 
presented  at  all  times  a  much  whiter  color,  and  standing  more 
pounding,  or  trituration,  than  the  wedgewood  mortar  commonly 
used  ;  and  the  evaporating  dishes  resisting  the  heat  of  both  the 
sand  and  water  baths  ;  at  the  same  time  being  able  to  purchase 
them  at  about  one-half  the  cost  of  ordinary  porcelain.  Not  only 
these  bulky  and  useful  articles  are  manufactured,  bat  also  the 
finest  parlor  ornaments  and  lamp  shades  are  made,  and  decorated 
and  finished  in  a  most  beautiful  manner  at  the  establishment, 
which  is  .situated  in  the  upper  part  of  Kensington,  on  York 
Avenue  in  Philadelphia. 
The  Danish  Government,  by  a  concession  from  King  Christian 
IX,  dated  September,  1864,  granted  the  exclusive  right  to  mine 
cryolite  to  the  "  Cryolite  Mine  of  Handelselshabet,"  a  company 
organized  in  Copenhagen.  This  company  contracted  with  the 
"  Pennsylvania  Salt  Manufacturing  Company  "  for  a  minimum 
supply  of  b'000  tons  yearly,  or  as  much  more  as  they  could  be 
able  to  use,  on  the  continents  of  North  and  South  America.  This 
year  (1867)  the  Company  imported  over  8000  tons,  and  sent  out 
to  Greenland  during  the  summer  nineteen  vessels,  having  an 
average  capacity  of  450  tons,  of  which  two  were  lost  in  the  ice, 
and  one  has  probably  wintered  there.  The  approach  to  the  coast 
is  always  considered  dangerous,  on  account  of  the  immense  fields 
of  ice  which  are  in  hot  weather  most  likely  to  be  met  with,  de- 
scending from  the  northern  latitudes.  These  fields  of  ice  consist 
in  part  of  drift  or  pack  ice,  and  in  part  of  icebergs,  and  some- 
times form  a  thick  and  impenetrable  belt  of  upwards  of  80  to 
100  miles  in  width.  This  ice,  however,  mainly  descends  from 
the  eastern  coast  of  Greenland,  where  at  all  times  the  ocean  cur- 
rent flowing  south  is  so  laden  with  ice  as  to  render  the  shore 
absolutely  inaccessible,  no  access  having  been  had  within  the 
past  six  centuries.  If  this  icy  belt  was  a  continuous  one  during 
the  open  season,  navigation  would  be  as  impossible  in  the  north- 
ern latitudes  as  it  is  on  the  eastern  coast  ;  but  off  the  western 
coast  of  Greenland  the  wind  is  from  the  north,  and  scatters  the 
