Molybdena is found in Shutesbury, Massachusetts, near Northampton, east of Connecticut River, on the land of William Eaton. It is the common sulphuret, but remarkably beautiful and well characterized. Its colour is nearly that of bright lead, very brilliant, smooth, and almost unctuous; soft, flexible, distinctly foliated, and the folia are very thin, and easily separable, almost like mica. It gives the usual greenish trace on white pottery, while a line drawn parallel on the same basis, by a piece of plumbago or black-lead, is black; this being (as pointed out by Brongniart) the easiest criterion, by which to distinguish between molybdena and plumbago, or black-lead. We have many times applied it with entire success.
This molybdena, from Shutesbury, is chiefly crystallized, and the crystals are, in some instances, very distinct; their form is that of a flat six-sided prism, or what is commonly called a table. The rock, from which they were obtained, is a granitic aggregate, (judging from the specimen sent, it may be a true granite) and the forms of the crystals are very distinctly impressed in the stone, so that when removed they leave an exact copy or crystal mould. In a letter from the proprietor of the land, it is said that the molybdena is found in a ledge of rocks, six or seven feet above the surface of the earth, and about ten or twelve feet above the level of the water; the direction of the rocks is from S. to N. E. by N.; the metal is in a vein, running E., and was discovered in small pieces in the top of the ledge. After putting in two blasts, some large pieces were obtained.
From this account, and from the specimens, (some of the crystals being an inch or more in length) this must be one of the most interesting localities of molybdena hitherto observed in this country; and it is hoped Mr. Eaton will take some pains to procure and furnish specimens.
Rose Quartz.—From Southbury, Connecticut, not far from Woodbury, and from the Housatonick River, two young men, of the name of Stiles, have brought us specimens of rose quartz, of delicate and beautiful colour. It is said to be abundant in a ledge of the same substance.
Plumbago.—In Cornwall, Litchfield county, Connecticut, plumbago is found, of a good quality, and in considerable masses, in a vein contained in a rock of gneiss, or mica-slate. It has been known a good while, and is said to have been exported anterior to the American revolutionary war.
Coal, &c. in Zanesville, Ohio. Through the kindness of the Rev. Dr. Bronson, Principal of the Cheshire Academy, we have received the following information.—In cutting a canal in the above town, in the spring of 1817, through freestone, trees, and fish, and other substances, both animal and vegetable, were taken out, alike petrified to a freestone, excepting the bark of a beach tree, which was very perfect and beautiful coal—(as we have had an opportunity of ascertaining, from an examination of the specimens.)
Coal, in the county of Muskingum, Ohio. Common stone-coal, highly bituminous, (the slaty or black coal of Werner,) is found abundantly.
South of Lake Erie, about 25 miles, in the bed of Rocky River, are found shells, and other animal remains, imbedded in argillaceous iron; the specimens were collected in 1817, by the Rev. R. Searle.