194 Miscellaneous Inte/ligence. 



pairing one of the streets of Aix-la-Chapelle, buried in the 

 earth. It was removed about the year 1814 from that situa- 

 tion, and has frequently since been mentioned as meteoric 

 iron. An analysis of it has been made, which gave as its prin- 

 ciples, iron, arsenic, sulphur, and various earths. M. Clerc 

 has since then examined this mass, and he concludes that it is 

 not meteoric, but the production of an ancient furnace. Some 

 specimens of the mass contained crystals of pyrites disseminated 

 through tliem ; and on an examination of the block itself, frag- 

 ments of argillaceous schist were found adhering to one extre- 

 mity, and penetrating even into the mass. Part of the specimen 

 which had been analyzed when examined by a lens, was found 

 to contain a fragment of brick sufficiently large to be seen by 

 the naked eye. These circumstances were sufficient to con- 

 vince M. Clerc, and those who assisted him in the examination, 

 tliat the mass was not meteoric, but had the origin assigned it 

 above. 



3. Micaceous Iron Ore. — The only granitic rock in the in- 

 habited part of the Missouri territory is situated in the neigh- 

 bourhood of La Motte. It ranges from S.E. to N.W., about 

 twenty miles in length;and six in breadth. It contains some re- 

 markable bodies of micaceous iron ore. A vein of it, several feet 

 wide, occurs on the banks of the river St. Francis at the Narrows, 

 Madison county ; but the most remarkable mass is called the 

 Iron Mountain, where the ore lies in such quantity as to form 

 a lofty ridge elevated from five to six hundred feet above the 

 plain, and half-a-mile in extent. — Schoolcroft, Lead Mines of 

 Missouri. 



4. Nitre Caves of Missouri. — " On the banks of the Merri- 

 mack and the Gasconade are found numerous caves Avhich yield 

 an earth impregnated largely with nitre, which is procured from 

 it by lixiviation. On the head of Current's river are d3so found 

 several caves from which nitre is procured, the principal of 

 which is Ashley's Cave on Cave Creek, about eighty miles S.W. 

 of Potosi. This is one of those stupendous and extensive 

 caverns which cannot be viewed without excitingr our wonder 



