Intelligence and Miscellanies. 191° 
Upon oe Passo there seems no reason to doubt that it is 
genuine t Respectfully yours, &c. 
Epwarp Hrrcncock. 
ing their nature, as might have been e axpacted. has bee 
greatly augmented ; and although we _may still be far from 
solving the curious problem of the origin of these singular 
bodies, we are nevertheless certain, that a minute observa- 
tion of all the facts connected with the subject, affords the 
only rational promise of our ultimately attaining so desira- 
ble an object. 
In giving a description of the Virginia aerolite, I shall in 
the first place consider the specimen before me in relation to 
its compound character, or, so to speak, as a rock ; and af- 
terwards I shall attempt to point out = nature of the indi- 
vidual substances of which it is com 
The weight of the fragment is a little short of two ate’ 
which is about half that, as we are informed, of the 
from which it was detached. That portion of the ex there a 
surface which remains in the specimen, sadieaten that the en- 
tire piece was vos ova in its figure than is usual in these 
stones. Besides this difference in general shape, the surface 
exhibits hollows ad circular cavities, some of which are half 
an inch in diameter and about the same in depth ; and is in- 
vested with the black coating which always accompanies such 
bodies, although this is interrupted in a few places, and no 
where appears to have resulted from a very perfect fusion. 
Its interior, at first glance, reminds one very forcibly of 
certain voleanic rocks. Its color is a bluish ash grey, inter- 
spersed with a sprinkling of ‘ehits and here and there with 
specks of brownish rust. It contains numerous ovoidal, ir- 
regular shaped cavities, varying. in size from one tenth to 
half an inch in diameter, which are lined in many instances 
with brilliant metallic crystals. Its compound character be- 
* Which ven miles from Richmond, Virg. June 4, 1828—for the | par- 
ticulars, see vo 15, pa. 195 sore this Journal. 
