Intelligence and Miscellanies. 1 99 



the most powerful heat of this instrument, melted down into 

 a pearly white translucent glass, or enamel. With micro- 

 cosmic salt it appeared to dissolve, with the greatest reluc- 

 tance, into a transparent colorless glass, leaving behind small 

 skeleton-like masses of silex. With borax, it dissolved with 

 difficulty and without effervescence, into a transparent, and 

 colorless glass. 



The present mineral appears to correspond with that allu- 

 ded to by Rose in the memoir before mentioned, and which 

 he found to compose nearly half of the Juvenas meteorite. 

 He ascertained that it contained 0*60. p. c. of soda: a quan- 

 tity so small, that he suggests unless it be a new mineral, 

 it belongs to his species, labradorite, — a substance better 

 known generally under the name of labrador feldspar. Its 

 general aspect, however, as it appears in the Virginia stone, 

 would render it more probable that it belonged to the varie- 

 ty albite, than to the labradorite. ^ 



It also forms a large proportion in the Maryland and Stan- 

 nern aerolite, and exists in the stones of TAigle and Weston, 

 though in the last, in but very small proportion. 



3. Phosphate of Lime. 



The only remaining earthy mineral distinguishable in the 

 Virginia stone, I take to be the above mentioned substance. 

 Its proportion in the mass is so trifling that it is scarcely per- 

 ceptible without the aid of a microscope, and even then, 

 only in a few points. When a fragment of the stone is bro- 

 ken down, however, we rarely fail to distinguish a few grains 

 which are at once recognized by their color. 



Mineralogical description. 



External shape, globular and reniform. Structure lamel- 

 lar. Brittle : fracture conchoidal. 



Lustre vitreous. Color honey yellow : transparent. Hard- 

 ness such as to scratch crystalized arragonite from Bilin, but 

 not asparagus stone: is scratched itself by the knife. 



Chemical characters. 



Before the blowpipe upon charcoal it phosphoresces with 

 great distinctness, and becomes rounded on the edges with- 

 out undergoing any perceptible ebullition, and without loss 

 of transparency. With microcosmic salt, it forms a trans- 

 parent glass, at first with a tinge of yellow, but becoming 



