SINGLE SPHERULE FROM lOWA RIVER OOLITE
Calcium carbonate,
While traces are wet with (theoolite being very
variable in appearance and quality) at various
points in the Chestnut Ridge country, the most
frequent occurence is marked by a line running
northeast from Scotia and terminating two miles
north northwest of State College, where the blocks
are quite numerous and reach a weight of as much
as four hundred pounds, and where all the finer
specimens are obtained. Many of the pieces from
this point are free enough from iron and cleavage
to admit getting good cabinet specimens showing
to perfection the wonderful regularity in the size
of the spherules, the concentric lines, and, under
the lens, when polished, the groups of interspherules.
Occasionally the blocks contain cavities lined with
quartz crystals. Sometimes a section shows a por
ous structure, the position of the spherules being
occupied by spherical cavities lined with drusy
quartz, presenting an appearance as of many min
ute quartz geodes broken open in matrix,
Examination with the microscope, and of
mounted sections shows that the nuclei of the
spherules are usually irregular quartz granules of
crystaline structure, carrying liquid inclusions.
It has been concluded from this that siliceous
oolite, unlike the limestone oolites, is of inorganic
origin.
It remains however to trace the mar ner of oc
currence and connection with underlying rocks.
These belong to the Canadian period. Higher,
in the Siluro cambrian, a strata of silica lime
oolite in which are imbedded masses of lime silica
oolite, both of a peculiar structure, crops out on
the college grounds. But no one has been able to
say positively that this occurrence is even a neigh
bor to that of the silicious oolite. Probably, the
siliceous oolite occurs imbedded in thin and ir
regular strata in the underlying rock r —there being
LANCE.
THE FRE
no evidence whatever of glacial transportation—
and will sometime, when excavations happen to be
made, be observed. Prof. W. S. Shale says that
every occurrence of oolite is of great interest to
geographical geology as indicative of the presence
and position of old shore lines.
It may be of interest to know what several emi
nent scientific men, among many others, have said
of specimens of this oolite.
"It is a singular formation and I have never seen
anything like it before."
Prof. Samuel S. Penfield—Yale S. S. S.
"It is of great interest and not a common rock."
Sir. j. W. Dawson, F. R. S.
We hear recently from the newspapers of a dis
covery having been made that the boundary line,
as now established between the States of Ohio
and Indiana, is not a correct one—that the latter
State has within her accepted territory a portion
of the fair soil of her sister State. Some have
asked, how is this to be remedied? Without at
tempting to answer this question definitely, I wish
to refer to cases arising at the threshold of our life
as a nation, the reference to which may be inter
esting and instructive. In the clays of the Con
tinental Congress, many were the disputes that
arose between States as to territory and boundaries
and between individuals claiming lands under
grants from different States. Among these con
troversies were those between Pennsylvania and
Connecticut; Pennsylvania and Virginia ; New
jersey and Virginia; Massachusetts and New
York ; South Carolina and Georgia ; New Hamp
shire, Vermont, New York and Massachusetts.
The Articles of Confederation provided that
the United States in Congress assembled should
be the last resort of appeal in all disputes and dif
ferences then subsisting, or that might arise there
after, between two or more States concerning
boundary, jurisdiction or any cause whatsoever,
11==11
01110 VS. INDIANA.
O. It. W