140 Baron Beust on some remarkable 



*' The large diamond found in 1809 was of the third 

 (Byshes) quality. It was picked up in the month of October at 

 a place called Herakode, in the bed of the Mahanuddee ; and 

 its delivery to Ranee Ruttun Coher was unluckily delayed on 

 account of her being engaged in performing the funeral cere- 

 monies of her husband's mother ; and before they were finish- 

 ed the Mahratta troops arrived and expelled her from the 

 country. A traitorous servant of hers betrayed the secret of 

 the valuable stone to Chunderjee Bhoonsla, the command- 

 ing officer, who persuaded the diamond finders to surrender it 

 to him by promises of the grant of a fine village and a thou- 

 sand rupees. On the following morning, when they appeared 

 to claim performance, they were reproached for bringing a 

 stone instead of a diamond, and driven from his presence." 



Akt. XXIX. — Notice of some Remarkable Twin-Crystals of 

 Phillipsite. By Baron Von Beust of Dresden. With 

 Observations by W. H aiding er, Esq. F. R. S. E. 



Near the village of Sirkwitz, between Loewenberg and Bunz- 

 lau, in Lower Silesia, there are two quarries in a compact, 

 black, columnar basalt, situated on the right bank of the 

 river Bober. Throughout the rock are found less compact 

 portions, often of the size of a man's head, consisting of a 

 brown earthy mass, in which a great number of the crystals 

 of Phillipsite are imbedded. Sometimes they occur alsa in 

 the compact basalt. 



Both simple crystals and twins, or regularly compound 

 ones, are found among them. The former do not so much 

 occur singly, as rather aggregated in small imbedded groups, 

 and show the simplest forms known in the species, the 

 four^sided prism, terminated by a four-sided pyramid, whose 

 faces are striated parallel to two of its terminal edges. In 

 the twin-crystals the extent of the two individuals is very 

 frequently so nicely balanced that the result is scarcely dis- 

 tinguishable from a simple form belonging to the pyramidal 

 system. The striae on the faces of the pyramid, when mi- 

 nutely examined, always yield the means of ascertaining the 

 actual compound state of the crystals. 



