Obrazy na stronie
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chrome, and a vein of native iron, discovered in North America, with plumbago. The origin of the singular meteoric masses is a mysterious and longdebated point. Credible witnesses have asserted their fall from the sky; while their immense size renders such an idea rather terrific. One in Brazil is supposed to weigh 14,000 pounds, and another in South America, no less than 30,000 pounds. Smaller ones have been found in Peru, Africa, Greenland, and Siberia, &c. Some scientific men are of opinion that these strange substances have been thrown down to us from volcanoes in the moon; and they certainly have been found to contain crystals of the most volcanic species, while discovered in regions remote from such influences. Magnetic iron is the purest form of the oxyde with which we are acquainted; it is a very interesting variety, generally found in primitive districts. In Sweden and Norway it is found in large quantities, but the most powerful natural magnets come from Siberia and the Hartz mountains. Various countries produce this species, in small quantities; its crystal is four-sided, and pointed at each end, like two pyramids joined together at their bases; its colour is a bright grey-black. The per

oxyde of iron is one of its most common forms; it is also called specular or red iron, and when massive, red hoematite. The most beautiful ores of Elba are of this kind; and the brilliant colours, green, purple, bronze, which they reflect, render them highly ornatal to the cabinet. The crystal is of a flat form, with slanting edges, and sometimes these are as sharp as little knives. I have several specimens from Elba and other places, some, of the liveliest hues of the peacock, and others, as bright as polished steel.

Under the same head we must rank the micaceous iron, black and glittering, in small thin scales,—the fibrous iron, the clay iron ores, in all their varieties -iron ochre, &c. The Welsh iron ore claims its place here, also the rich ore from Wotton Courtney. This is of a deep red colour, and has a bubbled appearance, while a piece from Merthyr Tydvil, which lies beside it, looks only like a smooth brown stone, and a specimen from Whitwick in Leicestershire is of a paler brown, without any appearance of iron whatever. The columnar clay ironstone is an interesting species, containing a small portion of the metal, but forming itself into regular figures, though not of a crystalline structure. The specimen now before me is from Dauphiné, and is of a dark red brown, shading into bright rust colour. I am rather puzzled here for a description; the best I can give is that it resembles a little model of an Alpine district, like ranges of small mountains, furrowed with valleys and water channels. It is a curious instance of the aptitude of minerals to assume regular forms, even when the substance is too much alloyed to admit of the proper crystallization. Brown iron ore is a very extensive species, and differs from the red only in containing a good deal of water, a little manganese and silica. It is, in fact, a hydrate of the peroxyde, and by dealers is generally called the hydrous oxyde. It is usually found in stalactic, kidney-shaped, or radiating masses, and very seldom in regular crystals. Sometimes it presents a brilliant iridescence, and a hollow piece will be partly filled with long slender stalactites of the brightest colours, like a pillared portico to a fairy temple. I have several specimens of this mineral in

its different states; one resembles brown paper cut into very small squares, while another, of some value, is a mass of seven or eight crystals, from one to two inches long, and as thick as a child's finger. Another, again, resembles radiations of bright blacklead, while a fourth has a rough surface of lively red, purple and green.

The remaining kinds of iron must stand over to our next number.

X. Q.

BE YE SEPARATE.

'How glad I am to be with you again, dear Aunt,' exclaimed young Alice Dawson, as she drew over a basket of work and seated herself in Miss Annesley's pretty library; Am I an intruder now,' she continued, or have you leisure to answer me at least a dozen questions?'

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'You are more than usually welcome at present,' replied her aunt, as she rose from her desk; during your absence I have spent so much time among my voiceless companions here, that my mind is rather wearied, and change of occupation will tend to refresh me.'

In a few minutes both ladies were diligently and usefully engaged, for Miss Annesley regarding time as one of the Lord's gifts to man, for the abuse or neglect of which all must be responsible, suffered not a moment to pass into eternity in vacant or unprofitable idleness.

'Now, Alice,' she said tell me what you want to know. I am always glad to give you the advantage of any knowledge or experience I possess, but beware of adopting blindly the views or opinions, even of those you greatly respect; pray for the guidance of the Spirit of truth, and weigh carefully the word that is spoken, for if there ever was a period when such caution might be remitted, it is assuredly not OCTOBER, 1844.

the present, when so much of subtle error is interwoven with sacred truth.'

'Well, aunt,' said Alice smiling, 'I will try, though I confess, I feel a great deal more inclined to gather up your wisdom ready for my own use, than to pause and analyse it: you will find however I did weigh some of what was spoken during my visit to Mrs. Burton, last evening, especially, when, by way of a treat for me, she invited a few of her intellectual friends, as she tells them; amongst others, old Mr. Mansell, who has written several learned books, and young Mr. Newcombe, the curate of her parish, who is expected to write a great many more.'

Miss Annesley's eye fell gravely and reprovingly on her lively young companion, but she did not interrupt her, and Alice proceeded :—' of course, as I was in duty bound to taste the fare provided for my mental appetite, I listened to every thing every body said, with various degrees of profit, till at last Mr. Mansell and Mr. Newcombe fell into an argument which engrossed me entirely and puzzled me no less, and now I resort to you, dear aunt, to get my twisted ideas disentangled. The conversation began by Mr. Mansell making some observations on the way in which the ends of the earth were drawn together in those locomotive days, contrasting it with the short period back, when London was considered almost inaccessible to the Irish, and a journey there, demanded not only previous settlement of all mundane affairs, but as much sea-store and preparation as if we were now starting for "Behring's Straits or Greenland's naked Isles ;" and then Mr. Newcombe said, in his mild smooth way, that he greatly rejoiced in

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