Miscellanies. 195 



8. Fire Bricks. — Mr. Isaac Doolittle, superlntendant of Iron 

 Works at Bennington, Vermont, has, from materials found in that 

 vicinity, manufactured fire bricks, which have stood a blast of five 

 months, and being recently examined appeared so little worn that the 

 furnace has again been put in blast. 



This discovery appears of serious importance. We have seen 

 specimens of the sand, which is purely siliceous — of the clay, which 

 is of the porcelain family, and of the brick and a crucible made from 

 these materials, all of which appear to be excellent. 



In the furnaces they substitute blocks and bricks formed of these 

 materials for fire stones in the construction of hearths, and of tymps 

 for blast furnaces. Heretofore hearth-stones have been obtained 

 -from Stafford, Connecticut, but these materials appear preferable to 

 either for durability and cheapness. 



9. Supposed Volcano at Sea. — An intelligent shipmaster writes 

 from the coast of California, that on his passage out " on Thursday, 

 April 9, 1835, in lat. 7° N. Ion. 99° W. we observed some little things 

 floating by the ship, which on examination proved to be small stones, 

 resembling pumice stone. From their appearance I should suppose 

 they were of volcanic origin. We sailed upwards of fifty miles 

 through them, thinly scattered over the surface of the sea. We were 

 about five hundred and forty miles from the continent, six hundred 

 from the Gallipagos, and six hundred from Clipperton Rock. The 

 northeast trade winds prevail in these latitudes. I can form no satis- 

 factory opinion whence they came, excepting from some volcanic 

 eruption at the bottom of the ocean. As I send you specimens, you 

 can forward part of them to Prof. Silliman.* 



"The meteoric shower in November, 1834, was seen in Califor- 

 nia." — Boston Daily Advertiser. 



Volcano at Sea. — We copied into the last Gazette, from the Bos- 

 ton Daily Advertiser, an account of a shipmaster sailing many miles 

 along the coast of California, through floating bodies of small light 



♦ These specimens, forwarded to us by some unknown friend, are decidedly 

 pumice stone, hardly distinguishable from those of the Lipari Islands. Color 

 light gray — structure, vesicular and fibrous, or filamentous — float on fresh water, 

 ■with half their volume out at first, until they grow heavier by absorption. They 

 destroy the polish of glass, and appear to have been some time afloat, as they are 

 considerably worn by friction : they have a distinctly saline taste. They were 

 undoubtedly the ejections of a volcano. — Ed. 



