GEOLOGY. 287 



wide remove from any meteoric substance heretofore described, and it 

 is probable that the compound of which this stone is principally com- 

 posed constitutes a mineral species hitherto unknown. 



The second meteoric mass described is the celebrated stone of Ca- 

 bavras Co., N. Carolina, which fell on the 31st day of October, 1849.* 

 The present weight of this specimen is 18 pounds. Its general 

 figure is pyramidal. In color it is of a dark bluish-gray, stained 

 with fine rust points. It is strongly magnetic, and remarkably com- 

 pact, requiring repeated strong blows of a hammer to detach a single 

 fragment. Its sp. gr. varies from 3. GO to 3.66. It is the first exam- 

 ple belonging to the trappean order of stones, which has been de- 

 scribed in the United States, and approximates most closely to the 

 rare stone of Tabor, Bohemia, which fell July, 1753. An additional 

 interest attaches to this stone, since its fall was succeeded by other 

 meteoric displays, in the same region, of a very brilliant and striking 

 character. 



The third meteorite described was discovered by Dr. Thomas Wells, 

 near Ruff's Mountain, Newberry, S. C. The time of its fall is not 

 known. The figure of this mass is irregular and ovoidal, being trun- 

 cate at both extremities. Its greatest length is 31 inches, breadth 

 29f inches, and weight 117 pounds. It is composed of 96 per cent. 

 of iron, and 3.121 per cent, of nickel, with traces of chromium, sul- 

 phur, cobalt, and magnesium. It belongs to the class of crystalline 

 homogeneous^ alloyed, malleable irons, and resembles the meteoric 

 iron of Texas. Prof. C. U. Shspard to the American Association, at 

 Charleston. 



VALUE OF SANDSTONES AS BUILDING MATERIALS. 



MR. F. A. ALGER has read before the Boston Society of Natural 

 History a paper on the comparative value of the sandstones of New 

 Jersey, New Brunswick, and Connecticut, as building materials. The 

 first specimen examined was from the Bay of Fundy ; it is a brown- 

 ish-red variety, of a fine gritty texture, and of uniform color ; it con- 

 tains no scales of mica, and its specific gravity is 2.48. The coloring 

 matter, peroxide of iron, exists only in the cement by which the par- 

 ticles of quartz are held together, for the pulverized stone, on being 

 exposed to the action of hydrochloric acid, remains a colorless and 

 nearly transparent sand. The stone contains no carbonate of lime or 

 sulphuret of iron, either of which would essentially injure it as a 

 building material. A mass exposed to a dry temperature of 75 to 

 80 for several days absorbed, when immersed in pure rain water, 

 3. 8 per cent, of water, and would take up no more. The mass ap- 

 peared very compact and free from seams, and showed no greater ten- 

 dency to crumble after being immersed and heated than before. In 

 hardness and tenacity it is greatly inferior to marble and granite, 

 though there are some inferior kinds of granite in use which will 

 hardly resist a greater crushing force A cubic foot of this freestone, 

 calculating from its specific gravity, weighs 155 pounds. 



* See Annual of Scientific Discovery, 1S50, p. 275. 



