Art. XXIII. 1. Discovery of American Cinnabar and Native Lead.
Art. XXIII. 1. Discovery of American Cinnabar and Native Lead.
Extract of a letter from Dr. Comstock of Hartford, to the Editor.
Sir,
In answer to your inquiry concerning the discovery of sulphuret of mercury and native lead in this country, I send you the following summary of a letter I received from B. F. Stickney, Esq. Indian agent, dated Fort Wayne, Dec. 1, 1818.
Mr. Stickney states, that the situation of Fort Wayne, and the country surrounding, is a high level, probably about 800 feet above the sea. From this place the water-courses divide and take different directions, on the one hand falling into the Gulf of Mexico, and on the other into the Bay of St. Lawrence. The whole country is of secondary formation, chiefly calcareous and aluminous.
Bitumen and sulphur are every where to be found, and as usual, accompanied by the metals.
In speaking of the cinnabar, his words are, "I have found a black and garnet-coloured sand, in great abundance on the shores of the Lakes Erie and Michigan, this is a sulphuret of mercury, and yields about sixty per cent. It is so easy to be obtained, and in so convenient a form for distillation, that it must become an important article of commerce."
The native lead was found on the Anglaize River, at a considerable distance from the fort.
Of this he says, "metallic lead is so interspersed with galena, as to prove incontestably the existence of native lead."
Respectfully,
Your obedient Servant,
J. L. COMSTOCK.
Hartford, Conn. Feb. 17, 1819.
Benjamin Silliman, M. D., &c.
2. Theoretical views of Professor Hare of Philadelphia.
We are authorized to mention, that Dr. Robert Hare has taught in his lectures during the last eighteen months, that acid properties never appearing in the absence of water, this fluid or its elements are most entitled to be considered as the acidifying principle: but that probably it does not exist in acids as water, but is decomposed when added to them, the particles of hydrogen and oxygen by their different polarities taking opposite sides of those composing the base. The extrication of hydrogen by the action of diluted sulphuric acid on iron or zinc, being the consequence of a previous, not simultaneous decomposition of water. Hence when sulphuric or nitric acids are so concentrated as to char or ignite, they are not acids really.
3. New Work on Chemistry.
Dr. John Gorham of Boston, Professor of Chemistry in Harvard University, &c. has published the first volume of his Elements of Chemical Science. The work will be comprised in two volumes, and its completion will be anticipated with interest by the scientific public.
4. Botanical.
Dr. Romer of Zurich, has begun, since 1815, to publish a new edition of the Systema Vegetabilium of Linnæus; he proceeds in its publication; it will form several volumes.
Robert Brown of London, is endeavouring to group the natural orders of plants into natural classes, or rather into larger natural orders, with determinate characters: he has communicated some parts of his labour to the botanists of Paris. He has been the first to employ as a new character in the distinction of natural orders, the estivation of flowers, or the manner in which they are folded in the buds.
C. S. Rafinesque, in his Analysis of Nature, has adopted a new practice, that of giving single substantive Latin names to the natural orders and families of plants.
Mirbel has proposed a new nomenclature of fruits in his Elements of Botany.
Decandolle, after publishing the principles of the science in his Theory of Botany, has begun to undertake a general species plantarum, according to the natural classification.
Three splendid Floras of the south of Europe have been undertaken. 1. Flora Græca, by Sibthorp and Smith in England. 2. Flora Lusitanica, by Link and Hoffmansegg in Germany. 3. Flora Nepolitana, by Tenore in Naples. They are very expensive works, and are not yet terminated. Received in January, 1819.
5. Staurotide.
Extract of a letter to the Editor, from John Torrey, M.D., of New-York.
"Mr. Pierce and myself lately found staurotide on the island of New-York. It occurs in considerable quantity in a rock of mica slate, on the banks of the Hudson, about three and a half miles from the city. The crystals very seldom form the perfect cross, though many were found, intersecting each other imperfectly at angles of 60°. Several single crystals were obtained exceedingly perfect. They were short 4-sided prisms, with the acute lateral edges truncated at each extremity on the two solid angles of the most obtuse lateral edges, forming diedral terminations at each extremity of the prism. The faces of these terminations were inclined to each other at an angle of 67° and a few minutes. The annexed figure shows the form of the crystal."
6. Supplement to the "Remarks on the Geology and Mineralogy of a Section of Massachusetts, on Connecticut River, &c." contained in No. 2, Art. I, of this Journal, by E. Hitchcock, A. M.
The following minerals, found in the region above named, were either omitted in the former list, or have been noticed since that was made out.
Bog-iron Ore. In Greenfield and Warwick.
Hornstone. Rare; in Deerfield and Conway.
Silicious Slate. In rolled pieces, on the banks of Deerfield river; not abundant.
Basanite, or Lydian Stone. Same locality.
Augite. In an aggregate of greenstone, quartz, and calcareous spar, in the greenstone range, Deerfield. Colour black, and the crystals usually imperfect, or broken.
Staurotide. In mica slate, Northfield, one mile east of the village, on the turnpike to Boston. The crystals observed were six-sided prisms. The same rock contains reddish garnets.
THE LEVERETT RANGE OF GRANITE.
This name is given to a granite range that emerges from the puddingstone near the centre of Amherst, and extends northerly, with some interruption, nearly thirty miles, through Leverett and Montague to Northfield. And, indeed, there is some reason to suppose that it again appears to the north of Northfield. The range is widest in Leverett, where its breadth is more than a mile. It is noticed in the "Remarks," No. 2, Art. I, of this Journal, and may be seen on the section accompanying that communication. But on further examination it has been found to be more extensive than was supposed. The texture of the rock is coarse. Plates of mica, 3 or 4 inches across, are common in it; and one specimen of a beautiful blue feldspar, the fragment only of a crystal, measured in one direction 8 inches.
Two circumstances in this range give it an interest in the eye of a geologist. The one is its proximity to sandstone and puddingstone; and the other, its small elevation in comparison with the surrounding rocks of later formations. In some places no other rock could be found lying between the granite and puddingstone; though the soil prevented my observing whether there is an actual contact. But in general there is a stratum of mica slate a few rods wide between these rocks, and not unfrequently gneiss lies between the mica slate and granite.
Standing on this range in Leverett, you have on the west, at about 100 rods distant, a precipitous mountain of sandstone and puddingstone, five or six hundred feet higher than the granite. On the east, a mile or two distant, a mountain of sienite gradually rises to a still greater height than the puddingstone; and on the southwest, at nearly the same distance, you can see an alluvial formation. In general this granite does not rise so high as the adjacent rocks, whether secondary or primitive.
VEINS OF ORE IN THIS GRANITE.
1. Of Galena in Leverett.
This ore forms a narrow vein in the southwest part of the town, on land of Moses Smith, two miles from the Congregational meeting-house. The direction of the vein is nearly north and south, and where I saw it, only a foot wide. The gangue is sulphate of barytes.
2. Of Galena, Copper Pyrites, and Blende.
This vein is a little more than a mile north of the one above described, and it may be a continuation of the same vein. The gangue is nearly an equal admixture of sulphate of barytes and quartz; and galena and sulphuret of copper are disseminated through it in about the same, that is, equal proportions. The blende, which is of a yellowish aspect when the fractured crystal is held in a certain position, appears only occasionally. This vein is several feet wide, has been wrought to a small extent in two places, and its direction is nearly north and south. It is on land of Mr. Field.
Radiated quartz. In the above vein. A considerable tendency to crystallization appears at this place, not only in the quartz, but in the foliated structure of the barytes.
Brown spar. In the same place. But little of this mineral was noticed. It exfoliated before the blowpipe, turned black, and became magnetic.
3. Of Specular Oxide of Iron in Montague.
This is found in a partially detached eminence, 100 feet high, near the north line of Montague, on land of Mr. Taft, a little southwest from the confluence of Miller's river with the Connecticut. The whole hill, not less than 100 rods in circumference at its base, is traversed by numerous veins of this ore; and scarcely a foot of the rock is to be seen that does not contain these, varying in width from a mere line to several inches. The principal vein appears on the top of the hill; and is, as nearly as I could determine, not less than ten feet wide, lying in a north and south direction. The ore seems to be abundant, and generally pure. Masses, that have been separated by blasting, and weighing from 100 to 200 pounds, lie on the surface. A small proportion of sulphuret of iron was observed in some specimens. The gangue is quartz, and the walls and hill granite.
No opinion is here intended to be offered concerning the probable value of these ores, if worked. If they be useless to the present generation, they may not be so to some future one, when labour shall be cheaper; and therefore it was thought to be of some consequence to point out their localities.
In the remarks, to which this paper is a supplement, blue quartz was inadvertently put down among the minerals found in Deerfield. I presume it does not exist there. It is also probable that the variety of garnets found in Conway, is not, as formerly stated, the melanite.
7. New Process for Tanning.
A process for effecting the tanning of leather in a neat, expeditious, and thorough manner, has been discovered by a Mr. Steel, of Connecticut: some account of it may be given hereafter.
8. Connexion between Chemistry and Medicine.
This subject has been discussed in an able and interesting manner by Professor Cooper, of Philadelphia, in a public discourse, which has now been some months before the public.
9. Brucite.
A new Species in Mineralogy, discovered by the late Dr. Bruce. We hope to publish in the next Number a description and analysis of it.
10. Lithography.
We are promised for our next Number, a full account of this art, of which we have received a beautiful specimen, A Minerva, executed by Mr. Bates Otis, an ingenious and enterprising artist of Philadelphia, who, under the patronage of Dr. Samuel Brown, is preparing to disseminate the productions of his skill, and to make this important art (executed with American materials,) extensively useful in this country.
N. B. As this number has already much exceeded its proper size, we are obliged to suppress many articles of domestic, and all those of foreign intelligence.