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Any slender, pointed object, like a needle, as a pointed crystal, a sharp pinnacle of rock, an obelisk, etc. Dipping needle. See under Dipping. -- Needle bar, the reciprocating bar to which the needle of a sewing machine is attached. -- Needle beam (Arch.), to shoring, the horizontal cross timber which goes through t…

Formed by water or aqueous solution; as, Neptunian rocks. Neptunian races (Ethnol.), the Malay and Polynesian races. -- Neptunian theory (Geol.), the theory of Werner, which referred the formation of all rocks and strata to the agency of water; -- opposed to the Plutonic theory.

An aggregated mass of any ore or mineral, in an isolated state, within a rock.

the American Upper Silurian system, embracing the Medina, Clinton, and Niagara epoch. The rocks of the Niagara epoch, mostly limestones, are extensively distributed, and at Niagara Falls consist of about eighty feet of shale supporting a greater thickness of limestone, which is gradually undermined by the removal of th…

Pertaining to the upper portion of the Laurentian rocks. T. S. Hunt.

A granular crystalline rock consisting essentially of a triclinic feldspar (as labradorite) and hypersthene.

ty of unctuous combustible substances, not miscible with water; as, olive oil, whale oil, rock oil, etc. They are of animal, vegetable, or mineral origin and of varied composition, and they are variously used for food, for solvents, for anointing, lubrication, illumination, etc. By extension, any substance of an oily c…

s the top with long white hairs. -- Old red sandstone (Geol.), a series of red sandstone rocks situated below the rocks of the Carboniferous age and comprising various strata of siliceous sandstones and conglomerates. See Sandstone, and the Chart of Geology. -- Old school, a school or party belonging to a former time…

common name of the yellowish green mineral chrysolite, esp. the variety found in eruptive rocks.

A special cell in certain cryptogamous plants containing oöspheres, as in the rockweeds (Fucus), and the orders Vaucherieæ and Peronosporeæ.

A native metal or its compound with the rock in which it occurs, after it has been picked over to throw out what is worthless.

A genus of extinct herbivorous mammals, abundant in the Tertiary formation of the Rocky Mountains. It is more or less related to the camel, hog, and deer.

An extinct genus of Brachiopoda, abundant in the Paleozoic rocks.

Turdus merula), and the mountain or ring ousel (Turdus torquatus). [Written also ouzel.] Rock ousel (Zoöl.), the ring ousel. -- Water ousel (Zoöl.), the European dipper (Cinclus aquaticus), and the American dipper (C. Mexicanus).

A part of a rock or stratum lying without, or beyond, the main body, from which it has been separated by denudation.

Lying over or upon something; as, overlying rocks.

Any marine bivalve mollusk of the genus Ostrea. They are usually found adhering to rocks or other fixed objects in shallow water along the seacoasts, or in brackish water in the mouth of rivers. The common European oyster (Ostrea edulis), and the American oyster (Ostrea Virginiana), are the most important species.…

encircle; to encompass; to fence off. [Your isle, which stands] ribbed and paled in With rocks unscalable and roaring waters. Shak.

An extinct order of sea urchins found in the Paleozoic rocks. They had more than twenty vertical rows of plates. Called also Palæechini. [Written also Palæechinoidea.]

A suborder of Crinoidea found chiefly in the Paleozoic rocks.