VOL. XXIV.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. Q5 



many grains as I fancied had preserved their original shape and figure ; for they 

 had received little or no damage, especially the small ones, and many of those 

 had such points and sides that no polished diamond could equal their heauty. 



I infused some of this sand into aquafortis, to try whether it would \lissolve 

 them, or deprive them of their shining quality ; and though they lay in it several 

 days, I could not perceive any alteration in them, I tried the sand also, with a 

 fire brisk enough to melt silver, and yet it did not affect either the figure or 

 lustre. When viewed with the microscope, several appearances of them were 

 as follow. 



Plate IV. fig. 1, ABCDEF represent a hexangular grain of sand, that was as 

 bright and shining as any polished metal ; and the triangular figures, which ap- 

 peared on it, were as bright as the rest of the body, which occasioned a very 

 agreeable sight. 



Before one of my glasses I placed another grain of sand, less than the former, 

 but it was flat, and not the l6th part so large as a coarse grain picked out of 

 our common white sand. This was a surprising sight, and is represented at fig. 2, 

 GHiKL, where you may see not only as it were a ruined temple, but in the corner 

 of it GHi appear two images of human shape, kneeling and extending their 

 arms towards an altar, that seems to stand at a small distance from them ; this 

 was yet the more agreeable that it was as bright as any polished steel. 



Fig. 3, MNOP represent as near as could be traced, another hexangular small 

 sand, with two sharp points like pyramids, and each side that composed them 

 very smooth and shining : I have seen several such sands, that on each side had 

 a smooth, shining and oblique superficies, sometimes on one single grain to the 

 number of 24 such polished sides or faces. 



I have also observed several small sands, which, instead of terminating their 

 six sides in a sharp point, ended sometimes in a triangle, quadrangle, and even 

 in a pentagonal or hexangular shining flatness. I remarked several three sided 

 sands, of which some were regular triangles, which were very thin and shining, 

 others were thicker ; as qrs, fig. 4. 



There were other sands, that were complete hexangles, the flat sides of 

 which appeared like a steel looking glass in a frame ; and in some of t^em were 

 little holes, which seemed to he. likewise hexangular ; whence I concluded that 

 such a hole was made by the pressure of another sand of the like figure. See 

 fig. 5, Tvw. When I viewed any of these sands sidewise, each of the six sides, 

 which in the figure appear as a frame or border, seemed to be a polished looking- 

 glass. 



Fig. 6, xYz also represents a hexangular sand opposed to the sight a little 

 sidewise, by which the reflection is not so full and large, as if the fiat side were 



