NOME II. NIOLITE. 



many specimens from Corsica, said he found 

 them at the foot of Monte Pertusato, one of the 

 dependencies of the chain of Niolo ; which, with 

 its valley, has been long since celebrated by 

 Dolomieu for the variety and beauty of its 

 lithology. 



" The ground of this beautiful rock is of a deep 

 brown, with numerous little spots of a yellowish 

 red, which have a pretty effect. They pene- 

 trate the whole thickness of this stone, and pro- 

 bably arise from the oxydation of the iron, which 

 abounds in the base of the rock ; but this state 

 of oxydation has little injured its hardness, and 

 does not prevent the stone from receiving a tole- 

 rable polish. 



" Amidst this ground spherical bodies ap- 

 pear; some being an inch, an inch and a half, 

 and even three inches in diameter. Many are per- 

 fectly round, others oblong, and they are placed 

 near each other, having the aspect of balls or 

 geods, solid in the interior, and strictly em- 

 braced by the base, as if formed when the latter 

 was soft. 



" But in this sort of explication we might fall 

 into the same error as Daubenton, when he 

 wished to apply this system of formation to the 

 ocular granitel of Corsica ; which, like this rock, 

 is only the result of a particular mode of crystal- 



