.DOMAIN IX. ANOMALOUS. 



Truxillo, in beds mingled with quartz, and in 

 such abundance as to form a hill. It was known 

 for a long time to the inhabitants by its property 

 of yielding a phosphoric light. In 1788, Proust 

 first indicated its nature, in the Journal de Phy- 

 sique*. 



NOME XVIII. GLOBULAR ROCK. 



This anomaly was discovered by Saussure, in 

 a hill not far from Hyeres, in the South of 

 France. As his important work has never been 

 translated, an extract may be satisfactory. 



" On my ascent I observed, in the calcareous 

 rock of the mountain, a hemisphere of 15 or 18 

 inches diameter, entirely composed of calcareous 

 spar, disposed in concentric layers, and each of 

 these layers formed by an assemblage of needles, 

 converging towards the centre of the mass. I 

 at first thought it was accidental ; but, as I pro- 

 ceeded, I saw with much surprise that the whole 

 mountain, to its very summit, is composed of 

 balls of spar, whose structure is nearly the same. 

 Their bulk varies : the largest being two or three 

 feet in diameter; the smallest, two or three 



* Min. i. 585, 



