96 TRANSACTIONS OF THE * [jAX. 27, 



Eome, as obtained from the baths and palaces of theCsesars; bat 

 that most unfortunately that collection has long lain under the 

 sea, off the shore of Fire Island. It was on board the Elizabeth, 

 the vessel that was wrecked there in 1850, on which occasion the 

 ill-fated Countess d'Ossoli (Margaret Fuller) lost her life. On 

 the same ship was brought over the statue of John C. Calhoun, 

 executed by Hiram Powers. This was afterwards dredged up 

 and recovered. 



He then exhibited some other new marbles of striking charac- 

 ter, from Manchester, Vermont. The leading type is a breccia 

 of white fragments in a bright red matrix. This beautiful 

 variety had been accidentally encountered by a farmer in ex- 

 cavating for the foundations of a barn, near the village named, 

 and had attracted the notice of Mr. Schwartz, who was present 

 this evening and would perhaps give some further particulars. 

 The high color and striking contrast of this marble would render 

 it very effective for certain kinds of large work, such as columns 

 of doorways, etc. It was overlain by a bed of handsome blue- 

 gray clouded marble, similar to that of some other quarries in the 

 same neighborhood. Geologically, these are Lower Silurian, — 

 parts of the Eolian limestone of Hitchcock, — which includes a 

 large part of the marble belt of western New England, from 

 Vermont down through the Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts 

 and on by Connecticut to Westchester County and New York 

 Island. Some portions of this belt are thoroughly metamor- 

 phosed into white crystalline marbles, as at Kutland, etc., and 

 others, as in this case, much less altered. Mount Eolus itself, 

 from which the series was named, is close to the village of Man- 

 chester. 



He also spoke of the existence of extensive deposits of very 

 beautiful black and variegated marbles in southern Nevada, and 

 exhibited specimens of some of them. The locality of these fine 

 materials had been hitherto practically inaccessible, though they 

 had been known for some years; but now a railroad is under con- 

 struction that will run quite near the deposits, and they will 

 then doubtless appear very soon in the market, as an important 

 addition to our American ornamental stones. 



