Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 43.djvu/439

Rh University of Pennsylvania. Report of Department of Archæology and Paleontology. Pp. 35.

Van Nostrand, D., & Co. Catalogues, Books on Steam. Steam Engines, etc. Pp. 30.—Books on Electricity, Electric Light, Telephone, etc. Pp. 18.

Van Rensselaer, Mrs. Schuyler. Art out of Doors. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Pp. 397. $1.50.

Whittemore, Henry. The Past and Present of Steam Navigation on Long Island Sound. Pp. 71.

Whitman, C. O., and Allis, E. P., Editors. Journal of Morphology. Boston: Ginn & Co. Pp. 184.

Wilson, Andrew., Science Stories. London: J. R. Osgood & Co. Pp. 269.

Winchell, N. H. Geological and Natural History Survey of Minnesota. Pp. 344.

Wolff, A. R. Heating of Large Buildings. Pp. 16. 25 cents.

Yale University. Graduate Instruction, 1893-'94. Pp. 56.



Copper in the United States.—Each of the main geographical subdivisions of the United States, according to Mr. James Douglas, possesses a distinct group of copper deposits. The Appalachian chain of mountains carries throughout its entire extent, from far beyond the northern limits of the United States to near the Gulf of Mexico, copper, which is chiefly but not exclusively contained in masses of iron pyrites imbedded in crystalline slates. Copper mines were worked before the Revolution in Connecticut, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. More recently mines have been worked in nearly all the Eastern, Middle, and Southern States from Maine to Alabama, but most extensively in Vermont and Tennessee. From the great trough between the Appalachian and Rocky Mountain chains, drained by the Great Lakes and the Mississippi, but little copper has been extracted except from the State of Michigan. There have been small workings in other places, but not important. The copper-bearing beds of the Keweenaw series in Michigan, extending, but not in profitable veins, into Wisconsin and Minnesota, consist of beds of trap, sandstone, and conglomerate of doubtful age. Everywhere in Michigan the copper of this series exists exclusively in the metallic state. Three classes of deposits are worked in the Keweenaw promontory: the veins that yielded those extraordinary masses, stray blocks of which were reverenced by the Indians, which attracted the attention of the Jesuit fathers, and which have appealed to the popular fancy; copper beds of amygdaloid diabase, locally called ash beds, and amygdaloid traps; and beds of conglomerate, of which the cementing material consists in part of copper. There are sulphuretedsulphuretted [sic] ores of copper in Michigan and Wisconsin outside of the Keweenaw series, but mines of notable productiveness have not been opened on any of them. The Rocky Mountain mines may be subdivided into two groups—those of southern Arizona and those of northern Montana. With insignificant exceptions, all Arizona copper comes from three groups of deposits: those near Clifton, at Bisbee, and near Globe. The ores heretofore yielded by these mines have been naturally oxidized, and with the elimination of the sulphur have been purified from certain other obnoxious elements which are commonly associated with sulphur. The Butte mines in Montana came into productive existence almost simultaneously with the mines of Arizona; but, instead of maintaining an almost stationary production, their record has shown an extraordinary augmentation of yield from year to year. Outside of Butte, no district promises in the near future to be largely productive. Promising indications of copper wealth exist in the Seven Devils' district in Idaho, but they have not been exploited. Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming have all yielded more or less copper, and all contain ores which under more favorable circumstances than now exist will be utilized. Colorado stands in the list as a producing State of growing importance. New Mexico does not produce much. On the Pacific coast, California alone has been notable in production.

Coal-tar Perfumes.—The revolution which chemistry has brought about in the manufacture of colors is now becoming apparent in the perfumery industry. As vegetable colors are being gradually replaced by the colors derived from coal tar, so artificial perfumes are gradually taking the place of the natural ones; and these derivatives from coal tar promise to give the best results in the future. Artificial perfumes are obtained by means of the ethers, liquids remarkable for their characteristic odors; by suitably composed mixtures by which imitations are obtained of the perfumes of fruits and of the principal alcoholic drinks; and