mmmmmmm 



^ PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1704. 



placed directly before the eye ; but then it came from the two sides which repre- 

 sent a part of the frame, and are shown in this figure by the letter x. Now 

 when the hinder part of such a sand is brought before the sight, I observe that 

 it has the same figure, and that then that part of it, which I should have de- 

 scribed as a dark circle of the shining sand, was composed of 12 bright, oval, 

 flat superficies. 



ABC, fig. 7f represent another hexangular sand, whose bright superficies or 

 area was of a different make from its circumference ; for there appeared in the 

 middle of them several triangular figures, which, though they were something 

 raised or imbossed, were very bright, and very pleasant to behold ; and though 

 the circumference in this position appeared very dark, yet the sides when opposed 

 to view were no less bright and shining. 



Fig. 8, DEFGH represents another grain of sand, with its protuberant parts, 

 and their respective sides ; but it is impossible to describe with the pen the 

 beauty and variety of the figures in the said sand, neither can any one conceive 

 it, but those that see it. I turned its opposite side to my glass, and I discovered 

 its several shining angles as in fig. 9, iklm. I placed another small shining 

 sand before my glass, which appeared as in fig. 10, opqr, several of whose sides 

 were unblemished. In short, should I undertake to give you a view of 1000 

 others, and should enter on a strict examination of every one of them, I doubt 

 not but we should discover every one of them to be of a different size and figure, 

 besides several other particularities which might be peculiar to each one, as the 

 great rent or breach in fig. 8 is described by aa. I have also observed that this 

 shining sand weighed twice as heavy as our common scouring sand. Now on 

 taking some of the pellucid or transparent sand (which did not shine, because it 

 reflected no light) I observed that the sides and angles of each grain were freer 

 from scars and blemishes, than most others I had yet considered ; from whence 

 I concluded that such sand had not lain long near the surface of the earth. 



I placed one of these sands before a microscope, so as to have a full view of 

 three of the four oblique sides, as fig. 11, abcdep ; one of the flat sides being 

 represented by bcdg; another bynEAG, which had a streak or scratch in it, 

 supposed to be done by the pressure of another sand upon it ; and the third flat 

 side by Boab. 



Having represented this transparent saud in its shortest position, I put it in 

 another sight, so as to see it in its full length, as in fig. 12, hiklm, with the 

 streaks or little holes, which I firmly concluded to be occasioned by the collision 

 of other sands. I likewise observed some few sands, that were long and slender, 

 and which did not appear thicker through a common microscope, than a single 

 hair of one's beard to the naked eye. 



