These extensive copper deposits occur in the permian formation, a system extensively developed in Russia, between the Ural Mountains and the Volga; in the north of England, and in Germany, where it is mined for its treasures of copper, silver, nickel, and cobalt ores. If this formation were ever known to exist in Texas, it has been mistaken for the triassic system, which is overlying the former to the southeast. Its hills, which have been traced throughout Archer and Wichita Counties, resemble in shape the copper-bearing or gossan-crested upheavals in Ducktown, Tennessee, but they are of a different age and composition, being nearly barren, and towering above the most beautiful mesquite prairies, fringed by the finely-timbered bottoms of the tributaries of Red River. The members of the Wichita system, so far as open to ocular inspection by outcrops of cross-cuts, making allowance for climatic differences, correspond closely with the lower strata discovered at Perm and Mansfield, but its mineral resources are evidently more promising. The veins of this copper are very numerous, and have been traced over the summits and sides of the hills, so that hardly a tract of one hundred and sixty acres can be found without ore on the surface. It is supposed that these veins are contemporaneous with injections, at different periods, of quartz, trap, and porphyry. The vein lodes are parallel with the strata, but there is sufficient evidence that they partake of the nature of true veins. Cupriferous and ferruginous cross-courses, feeders, and leads of manganese, are often met with. A cross-cut was made to the depth of fifteen feet, and in ten hours six thousand pounds of copper ore were produced, which is deemed far superior to the ferrosulphuret of copper, or copper pyrites, generally worked in England, and, in fact, it is more profitable than the native copper found on Lake Superior, being easily smelted, and the strata in which it is found can be more economically excavated than any other in which copper ore occurs.

Ores of lead and zinc.-There is also in the General Land Office collection a fair representation of lead and zinc ores from all parts of the United States. They are associated with iron pyrites, zinc-blende, quartz, calcareous spar, barytes, and fluor spar. The lead ores are the usual forms of galena, or sulphuret of lead, containing almost always a small proportion of silver, varying from two to fifty ounces per ton of lead. Galena, when in a condition of greatest purity, is composed of lead, 86.55, and of sulphur, 13.49 per cent. Zinc-blende, or sulphuret of zinc, associated with these ores, is sufficiently abundant to be of great importance for producing lead, yet of much more value as a source of the metal silver.

An immense expanse of territory lying west of the Mississippi is productive of galena in the underlying lead-bearing rocks, from all of which specimens have been received. The presence of silver in the proportion before mentioned has given new directions to the operations of the miners and smelters, the silver often paying the expense of elaboration, leaving as profit 80 per cent. of lead. It is generally very pure galena, but often, besides silver, contains considerable percentage of zincblende, iron pyrites, and other minerals. A very curious and interesting instance of this admixture of mineral species, of which specimens can be seen in the cabinet of this office, occurs in the great cannel coal vein in the southern part of Moniteau County, Missouri, where zincblende, galena, iron pyrites, with calcareous spar, are interlaminated with the cannel. In addition to the zinc ore, just referred to, large veins of calamine, an impure carbonate, together with silicate of zinc, accompany the lead veins.

Ores of tin. The ores of this metal are represented in the General

Land Office collection by a very few specimens. The oxidized form of the metal called stannic acid has been detected, in the proportions of onehalf and one per cent., in syenitic and dioritic rocks of Madison and other counties in Missouri, which discovery has awakened the hope that a more profitable amount of the metal may yet be found. Judging from unmistakable evidence, it would seem possible that large quantities of tin ore exist in the northeast, since the aborigines made implements of tin, as shown from various articles exhumed.

Extensive deposits are also represented as existing in California, a number of tin ledges, it is stated, having been exposed in San Bernardino County; but we are unadvised either of the geological connections of the veins or the substances with which the ore is mineralized; nevertheless, it is supposed they are easily worked.

Ores of iron.-We have a fair representation in our mineral collection of the workable iron ores of the United States, Missouri especially having furnished a large proportion. Iron pyrites, vivianite, mispickel, magnetic iron ores, red hematite, brown iron ore, spathic iron ore, blackband and clay iron stones, are all included.

Prominent among the new localities may be first mentioned the valuable and extensive beds in Llano, Burnet, and Mason Counties, Texas. A specimen from Johnson Creek, Llano County, sent to this office, contains 96.89 per cent. of peroxide and protoxide of iron, with 2.818 per cent. of insoluble silicious substances, giving 74.93 pounds of metallic iron in 100 pounds of ore. The ores are partly magnetic and in part specular oxides of iron; they are analogous to those of the celebrated iron mines in Sweden, and of the Iron Mountains in Missouri. The iron region of this locality is situated in the primary rock formations, surrounded by ridges of granite, intersected by veins of quartz, and associated with red feldspar, gneiss, talc, and chlorite slates. The limestones of the palozoic and cretaceous rocks are in the immediate neighborhood, from which abundant materials for a flux can be easily obtained.

From Santa Fé County, New Mexico, we have specimens of the protosesquioxide of iron. This valuable ore is found in large quantities about twenty-seven miles south of Santa Fé, as also in many other localities of the Territory. It is highly magnetic and polarized, containing seventy per cent. of metallic iron. The presence of chromate of iron in our collection from New Mexico deserves notice, as it is the wellknown, though somewhat rare, mineral from which are manufactured many useful, durable, and brilliant paints and dyestuffs, as bichromate of potash, chrome yellow, and chrome green. The demands of commerce have hitherto been almost entirely supplied by ores found in a single workable bed of serpentine rock, which passes down from one of the southern counties of Pennsylvania into the adjoining county of Maryland, and for nearly fifty years has been the undisputed monopoly of a single establishment. The price of this ore and its products might be fixed at the pleasure of the parties, but their exported ore, returning here in manufactured form, meets them in the market, keeping the prices at moderate rates, which may be attributed to the low price of European labor.

The ores of manganese, valuable in the manufacture of Bessemer steel, have also a fair representation in our collection, the specimens being from different parts of the country; but bismuth, molybdenum, wolfram, cobalt, nickel, and antimony, are as yet imperfectly represented,

NON-METALLIC MINERALS.

Of the minerals composed chiefly of carbon we have the graphite, plumbago, or black lead, from Pennsylvania, Nevada, and Virginia, the

manufacturing value of which is too well known to require further notice.

Of anthracite or non-bituminous coal we have many fine specimens from localities lately discovered. In Santa Fé County, New Mexico, near the line of the proposed railroad, large beds of pure anthracite are found, the coal evidently being of tertiary origin and appearing to have been metamorphosed by the superincumbency of melted porphyry. The conversion of the bituminuous coal of the country into anthracite was found to have been caused by the proximity of a large mass of porphyry forty to fifty feet high, which, by exciting heat, pressure, and chemical influence, has produced the change. The discovery of this coal deposit may be regarded as of as great value to the country as any of the gold or silver veins, since without it railroads could not so successfully penetrate the 'treeless prairies of the west, the fact having been established that such coal deposits adjacent to proposed routes of railroads are almost absolutely essential.

Abundant evidence is furnished, by specimens received at this office, of the amount and character of coal in New Mexico; and engineers locating roads across that Territory can easily satisfy themselves of a sufficiency existing for the use of their work, when constructed, for all time.

The veins met with in various places vary in thickness from eighteen inches to four or five feet, and are generally of a highly bituminous character. A remarkable exception to this is found in the well-characterized anthracite above alluded to, the only case of the kind known west of the Mississippi River, occurring in various localities from twenty-seven to seventy-five miles south of Santa Fé, in veins from four to seven feet in thickness, and very accessible.

Of the Peacock, or iridescent bituminous coal, we have but one specimen, sent from Cumberland, Maryland, which is remarkably beautiful. All the other varieties of coal in the collection are numerous, and especially interesting from their differing in geological age; ranging from the imperfect lignites found on the line of the Union Pacific railroad, and those wonderful deposits in Alaska, to the dense and compact masses of cannel. It was ascertained at this office, from specimens collected by Dr. T. J. Minor, of the United States steamer Wyanda, in Alaska, sixty miles north of Sitka, that the coal is of very recent origin, probably tertiary, resembling some of the brown coals of the miocene tertiary basins of Germany. It dissolves completely in nitric acid; on being diluted with water, a resinous substance is precipitated, having an odor similar to pine rosin, It contains 45.772 per cent. of carbon, of volatile matter 35.168 per cent., of water 15.725, of ash 3.335 per cent., and only 0.18 per cent. of sulphur. The ash has a yellowish-brown color, it being quite ferruginous, and has an alkaline reaction. A determination of the caloric power of this coal showed that one part reduces 20.15 parts of lead from the oxide, while pure carbon reduces 34 parts. Of the cannel coals, the name being derived from "candle," because this coal may be ignited as easily as a candle, we have very fine specimens from a vein over fifty feet thick, located in the southern part of Moniteau County, Missouri. It shows a texture as homogeneous as the finest black marble, and is equally capable of being turned on a lathe or subjected to the chisel of the sculptor. The coal bed is worked in a vaulted room now of forty-five feet diameter, the whole of which is excavated in the coal, the sides, roof, and walls of the mine consisting of this mineral. There are two descriptions of coal taken out; the first is six feet thick, overlies

the cannel, and contains no lead: the remainder is the "cannel" noticed above.

We have also specimens of asphaltum, or compact bitumen, from Pennsylvania, California, Nevada, and Texas. Sulphur, salts of soda, potassa, rock salt, baryta, strontia, rock crystals, quartz pebbles, mossagates, onyx, jasper, a variety of precious garnets and agates, chalcedony and carnelian, of beautiful colors and figures, are in our collection as contributions from various parts of the Union. Many of the precious stones when subjected to the skill of the lapidary prove as valuable as those ordinarily found in jewelry establishments. Prominent among these is a ribbon jasper of alternate stripes of brownish yellow and black, found in New Mexico, and is regarded by connoisseurs as remarkable for its uniform beauty.

The greater portion of the silicious minerals hitherto received are rolled pebbles from the streams, showing that when traced to the parent rock many finer specimens may be obtained; among others worthy of notice there are several varieties of petrified wood, some of which, having passed into the condition of agate, and their vegetable fiber having become obliterated by the infiltration of mineral substances, it is impossible to determine the character of the wood.

Rocks and fossils.-The ores and other minerals in our collection show the economic substances produced by the rocks; their description will in part form a kind of hand-book to the geology of the United States, which may hereafter be enlarged and perfected when an arrangement shall have been made of a strictly stratigraphical collection. The fossils and illustrative specimens of rocks are well represented in the department, and when completed will give some idea of the different formations of all the political divisions of the country. Specimens of rock materials used in building and architectural ornament have been forwarded to this office in large numbers. Marbles of variegated surface and color constitute by far the larger number of this class, and leave nothing to be desired where beauty and solidity are requisite. Most of them are already known to the public as the so-called Potomac marble-a breccia― the veined marble and the "verd-antique" of Vermont, the variegated marble of Tennessee, the compact magnesian limestones of Virginia, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Iowa, and Kansas, some of them running into a lithographic stone of admirable texture. The most remarkable granite rock received is a red syenite from Texas, which has a color and texture resembling the red granite of Syene, in Upper Egypt, and the beautiful rock from Peterhead, Scotland, now much in vse for monuments and tombs, and which receives a polish equal to agate or carnelian. A row of splendid colums of this rock upholds a gallery in the "King's library" of the British Museum, and the ancient Egyptians used this material in constructing their famous obelisks.

Sandstone, gneiss rocks, flags, roofing slates, conglomerates, vesicular basalts, and Georgia buhrstone for milling puposes, white sand for glass manufacture, and a great variety of clays for porcelain, coarse pottery, and for crucibles, have been sent from various districts, indicating the abundant resources of every part of the country, where they may be easily quarried, and which lie within short distance from means of transportation.

It is not surprising that even the broader features of the geology of the lands lying west of the Mississippi and Missouri, and east and west of the Rocky Mountains, should at first have been misconceived, and that authoritative publications should have spread before the public statements entirely illusive as regards their true character; that Maclure should

have marked the whole expanse as secondary; that Marcou should declare it to be triassic; and that the best explorors of the present time should be contending whether the tertiary, the cretaceous, or carboniferous predominates. Crossed by only a few lines of traffic, infested with hostile bands of Indians, remote from the means and facilities of scientific investigation, the facts were slow in accumulating, and deductions took the hue of the prevailing theory in the mind of the explorer. But now the geologist enjoys larger liberty, and the results of his wanderings and investigations show that the immense regions alluded to are likely to furnish problems for solution of deep and varied interest, not involving the deposition of one vast deposit, all prevailing and unchanging, but a series of deposits, reaching from the lowest to the highest mark in geological time, and on a scale equally gigantic with all other natural phenomena of the North American continent. The deposits are of all ages, both fresh water, marine, and igneous, and their sedimentary rocks are crowded with the exuviæ of plants and animals. Recent discoveries in the southern part of the basin disclose areas of territory filled with the remains of mammalia and reptiles similar to those which excited so much interest as to the mauvaises-terres in the North, and recently the skeleton of a huge saurian, from Kansas, has reached the museum of the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences, the length of which, judging from the parts of the vertebræ discovered, is estimated at seventy feet.

Europe once filled the mind with wonder at the marvelous evidences of geological formation, but now the eye of science is directed to these basins of the West, the bottoms of the great tertiary and cretaceous seas, to discover new facts and conclusions relative to organic life on the globe.

The numerous divisions into which these strata have been arranged in accordance with the predominance of certain fossils inclosed within them are of the highest interest to the savant, but a detailed account of them would be out of place in this outline. It may suffice to state that the broad plains intervening between the basins of the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains exhibit, in one part or another, on this long line of travel, vast spaces covered by the tertiary, cretaceous, jurassic, triassic, and carboniferous, among the sedimentary rocks; and when the explorer ascends the mountain sides, he crosses in quick succession formations older than those previously met with, encountering in turn the permian, the carboniferous, the silurian, and all the forms of metamorphic azoic rocks. Their upturned edges show that they have been thrown into a vertical or highly inclined position by the granites, porphyries, basalts, and other igneous rocks, which form the central body of the great chain of mountains stretching from near the mounth of the McKenzie River, in the North, to the Gulf of Mexico. Once across this dividing ridge, in the basin which reaches to the Sierra Nevada, the naturalist beholds a recurrence of similar deposits, and the conviction forces itself upon his mind that formerly the two basins east and west of the mountains formed the bed of a sea, in which the more recent strata, now constituting the surface, were slowly deposited, but which have since been forced asunder by the upheaval of the mountain system. To this cause are we indebted for the present system of river drainings, and the foundation of vast fields ready for the agriculturist. But above all, the fiery forces from beneath have penetrated the flanks of the mountains, revealing veins of precious metals, and promising remuneration to the laborer, success to the capitalist, and wealth to the nation.

One of our leading industries is undoubtedly the mining interest, so