Mineralogical Account of the Island of Ctyrsica, 355 



mens, that by finibhing the object of the visit I paid to the 

 two banks of the torrent, we shall perhaps succeed in dis- 

 covering the primordial masses of the beautiful orbicular 

 granite of which a small partial mass only has been hitherto 

 dicovered : ih^ angles of it were rounded, and it was found 

 isolated upon the beach of Taravo, half a league from the sea, 

 in the gulf of Valinco. 



"From the information I procured on this occasion, I 

 think I proved to a certainty that the small mass of this gra- 

 nite, already known, comes from no place except Corsica ; 

 for you know that several naturalists have formed various 

 conjectures upon the subject. 



In the course of this tedious journey, I had also an op- 

 portunity of discovering an ore of iron, the stratum of 

 which is half a league in length. 



After having passed "the river Oposata, in order to arrive 

 at Calvy, in a plain above the village of Calenzana, to the 

 eastward of Galeria, I found a stratum of iron ore, placed 

 horizontally in a yellow earth, which at times disappears 

 throughout the whole length of the ore, and the mineral of 

 which is presented in three diflerent views. At first it ap- 

 pears under the character of scaly iron, arranged in thin 

 layers, mixed with a yellowish ochrey earth ; afterwards it 

 appears as a heavy blackish iron, compact, and almost en- 

 tirely disengaged from every heterogeneous substance ; and 

 under a third aspect, in elongated spheroids from four to 

 five inches in diameter, exfoliating at its surface, and com- 

 pressed at the two sides : this gives it angles at intervals ; and 

 the sandy character and composition of it made me deno- 

 minate it arenaceous iron : and I procured the necessary 

 specimens for the experiments I intended to try upon it. 



Having ascertained from these trials that this ore Was very 

 productive, I transmitted to the council of mines several 

 specimens of the above stratum, begging them to publish the 

 result of their assays. 



Z 2 LXVI. On 



