RECORDS 



OF 



GENERAL SCIENCE 



JULY, 1835. 



Article I. 

 Fairy Stones. 



During the course of last summer, while exploring the 

 fertile valley of the Tweed, in the vicinity of Melrose, the 

 Editor was presented, by an esteemed friend, with a number 

 of little rounded pieces of stone, of which the accompanying 

 wood-cut is intended to form a full size representation. They 

 are denominated by the common people fairy stones, from 

 a tradition that the locality from which they are derived 

 was the residence of the fairies. They consist of a calca- 

 reous schist, which has been broken down and fashioned 

 into the regular forms delineated, by the influence of the 

 current. Analysis gave 



Carbonate of lime . . . 58'5 

 Schistose matter . . . . 41*5 



100- 



Many of them possess a border as if they had been turned 

 by a lathe, and exhibit sculptures on their surface resem- 

 bling oriental letters. 



Sir Walter Scott, in the introduction to the Monastery, 

 has alluded to these curious fragments, and has described 



VOL. II. - B 



