this company will be able to regulate the coal trade, so as to avoid, in a measure, the fluctuations to which it has always been subjected here as well as in Mobile. These mines are situated in the counties north of this place, through which the Alabama and Tennessee railroad passes. These counties abound in coal mines, which are inexhaustible, as, also, in minerals of different kinds, which, when fully developed, must make this one of the richest of the southern States.

GEOLOGY OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI.

It has already been published in several papers of our State that I have discovered, on my geological tour through the southeastern counties of the State of Mississippi, a very important and really inexhaustible deposit of shell-marl. This deposit is in the southern part of Clark county. I found it first on the plantation of Gen. W. B. Trotter, in a deep gully, with high and perpendicular bluffs, on section 3, township 10, range 7 west, about 20 feet under the surface, cropping out in the gully. This really valuable deposit of marl is evidently a member of the tertiary (eocene) lime formation, which is so well developed in the southeastern part of our State. This formation is similar to the cretaceous formation of the secondary period, of which it is most evidently a continuation. It consists

1. Of a hard carbonate of lime, or white limestone, in many localities eminently fit for burning quick lime;

2. Of a soft aluminous carbonate of lime, an inferior kind of marl, and

3. Of a fine green sand, full of tertiary shells, and of a superior quality, generally better than our green sands of the upper and lower cretaceous formation of the secondary period, and eminently fit for a marl of prairie and heavy clay soils.

The deposit of fine marl above mentioned takes the place of the green sand of the tertiary lime formation; it consists, to a large extent, of the detritus of shells and their former inmates, the decayed mollusks. This bed of sand is not confined to Gen. Trotter's plantation. I found it also outcropping along the bluff of the Chickasawhay river. This bluff is in that locality (section 3, township 10, range 7 west) very nearly 100 feet high; the deposit of marl appears for miles along the river, and forms its bed for more than one mile; it is in some places at least 50 feet thick. This deposit appears to dip from east to west; its strike is decidedly from north to south. At the first view of this deposit of marl, I recognized ts superior quality, and its great importance for a purely

agricultural State, as ours is. I declared it instantly the best marl I ever had seen, but a rapid analysis to which I have, since my return to our university, submitted the specimens of marl collected partly on Gen. Trotter's plantation, partly on the bluff of the Chickasawhay river, has by far exceeded my expectation.

According to this analysis, the marl contains in 100 parts—

According to the above analysis, 100 pounds of the marl contain 58.460 parts of soluble matter. This soluble matter consists of 8 pounds of oxide of iron and alumina; nearly 33 pounds of carbonate of lime; 3.352 pounds of phosphate of lime; 3.684 pounds of sulphate of lime; 9-10 of a pound of chloride of magnesium; 7.840, or very nearly 8 pounds of alkalies, mostly potash and a small quantity of ammonia. It is, therefore, very evident that this marl must be a most excellent manure, especially for light soils, of which the northern, middle and southern parts of our State abound. It contributes to the value and importance of the deposit of the marl, that it is not only situated in a region where it is eminently applicable, but that it is immediately on a navigable river, and within a mile or two only from the Mobile and Ohio railroad; it can, therefore, easily be transported to many counties of this State and of Alabama.

Of what importance good marl is for an agricultural State is shown by the example of the States of North Carolina, Virginia, and New Jersey; a large part of the land of those States is actually renewed by the effect of marl, and I doubt whether either of those States can produce such a superior marl as that of the deposit of Clarke county, which is, indeed, not much inferior to guano, and for some soils of our State even better.

The great importance of this deposit of marl for our State has induced me to hasten the publication of its discovery and quality, and I now invite the agricultural public to avail themselves as soon as possible of this fine manure, and to inform the undersigned of its effect.

The tertiary lime formation in Clarke and Wayne counties does not only afford this fine marl, but, as I have already re

marked, the upper part of it, the hard carbonate of lime or limestone, yields in some places a most excellent material for burning quick-lime. Such a locality I found in Wayne county, on Round Hill, near Limestone creek, immediately on the Mobile and Ohio railroad, and on the plantation of Dr. E. A. Miller. There are three different kinds of limestone to be found, viz: a very hard white limestone, hard enough for building; a soft limestone of a yellowish color, and rather brittle; and lastly, a shell limestone, nearly entirely formed of tertiary shells, especially of the genus Pecten, and still more mixed with the oxide of iron, and, therefore, very yellow. I collected specimens of all those different kinds, and an analysis of them has given the following results:

No. 1. The hard limestone consists in 100 parts of1. Insoluble silica and alumina

2. Oxide of iron and soluble alumina.

3. Carbonate of lime.....

No. 2. The soft limestone contains in 100 parts

1. Insoluble silica and alumina......

2. Iron and soluble alumina.

3. Carbonate of lime .........

No. 3. The shell limestone contains

1. Insoluble silica and alumina

2. Oxide of iron and soluble alumina....... 3. Carbonate of lime ....

66

6.300 per cent. 7.200 86.500 66

15.050 66
5.350

66

79.500 66

9.200 66

6.650 66

84.150 66

Carbonate of lime contains, besides the lime, carbonic acid gas at the rate of 43.708 per cent. No. 1 contains, therefore, in 100 pounds only 48.693 pounds of pure quick-lime; No. 2 only 44.809 pounds; and No. 3 only 47.370 pounds. If well burned, 100 pounds of No. 1 will, nevertheless, weigh 62.193 pounds, but 13.500 pounds are impurities, and only 48.693 pounds are pure lime; 100 pounds of No. 2, well burned, will yield 65.304 pounds, but 44.809 pounds are only pure lime, and 20.495 pounds are impurities mixed with it; 100 pounds of No. 3, well burned, will yield 63.220 pounds, but 47.370 pounds are only pure lime, and 15.850 pounds are impurities. It is, therefore, evident No. 1, the hard limestone, is the best for making quick-lime; it not only yields most, but gives also the purest lime. If we have such fine material for manufacturing quick-lime in our own State, why do we not use it? Why do we purchase our lime from other States, especially from the north, if we can make it ourselves fully as good and much cheaper than we buy it?

UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPI,

Geological and Agricultural department.

L. HARPER.

MINING STATISTICS OF CALIFORNIA.

Dr. Trask, the geologist of the State of California, in his recent report to the legislature, states that the area that is now known to contain valuable deposites of gold is believed to be at least six times greater than that which was developed during the years of 1848 and 1849, while the number of miners actually engaged in the extraction of gold is less than those of 1852; yet the export of the year last past exceeds by nine millions the total exports of the former year.

The capital invested in and the gross receipts of the quartz mines he states as follows:

Investments

Gross receipts

Total capital and products for 1854

$1,127,000

2,157,000

$3,284,510

From the above it appears, says Dr. Trask, that the aggregate product of these mines is about four per cent. of the product of the State, as far as the latter is known with any degree of certainty.

The aggregate number of persons actively employed in extracting the ores and in reducing the same amounts to six hundred and ten, bearing a very small proportion to the great mass engaged in the other branch of mining in the State.

He gives also the number of water companies for mining purposes; the number of miles constructed in seven of the mining counties, and their value in each county, as follows:

GEOLOGICAL REMARKS RELATING TO THE WEST AND SOUTHWEST OF THE

UNITED STATES.

BY WILLIAM F. ROBERTS.

Since my return from an examination of the coal and other mineral deposits on the Ohio river, and of the States of Missouri and Kansas, with the territories occupied by the Choctaw and Cherokee Indians, I have been frequently requested to make known to the public the impression derived from an exposing, laborious, and highly interesting and instructive geological tour, with the hope that the knowledge thus obtained will contribute to draw the attention of the public to

the wonderful and varied resources of the richest portion of this great republic-a section of our country not well known, where persons sceking investments of this kind will find the most reliable and tempting opportunities, and where the industrious farmer and mechanic and other operatives (whom it seems are likely, considering the present situation and future prospects of Europe, to emigrate to this free and happy Union in much larger numbers than hitherto they have done) will find the most desirable locations for their future homes. My examinations were made on horseback, in a section of our country where I had not before been, and, considering the time spent, were very thorough and extensive, as the specimens I collected will show.

In one State alone (Arkansas) I travelled near four thousand miles with the same animal, gathering minerals, such as ores of iron of very great variety, copper, galena, and argentiferous lead, zinc of the finest quality, coal of several kinds, with granite, marble, lime and sandstone, breccia, and other geological material, which may hereafter be profitably worked for useful and ornamental purposes, which have since been forwarded to me, the variety and richness of which will show to any one at all familiar with such subjects the importance the great west and southwest will become, at no distant day, in the history of this country. This opinion I am sustained in by the examinations of many gentlemen well known to science and the world, who have done me the honor to call and examine them. I am indebted to the obliging and courteous people residing there for many kind offices and facilities afforded me in sending my collection from interior points to places on the river or other highways, and I take much pleasure in acknowledging their kindness and my obligations. And here I may remark, that a frank, open, and enlarged hospitality is everywhere characteristic of the settlers of Arkansas. Wherever I called at a house, however humble, for accommodation for the night, the reply was, "Alight and come in ;" and I always found myself treated better than themselves, and I felt as much security in travelling as I should in any of the middle or eastern States. I frequently and fully told them that my object was to inform myself of the resources, mineral and agricultural, of their State, and to use that knowledge in making it known to enterprising and wellqualified emigrants. This announcement was always received by them with pleasure. The people generally are quite as intelligent and shrewd as persons filling similar positions in any part of our country, and any one who should go among them, expecting to find it otherwise, will soon be disabused on this point.