Miscellanies, 



361 



10. Singular impression in marble. 



TO PROF. B. SILLIMATf. 



Dear Sir — About twelve miles N. W. of this city, is a marble 

 quarry owned by Mr. Henderson. It belongs to the primitive lime 

 formation, and in this district forms the last of that series. The or- 

 der in which the rocks repose are, commencing at Philadelphia, as 

 follows ; gneiss, mica slate, hornblende, talcose slate, primitive clay 

 slate, a very narrow strip of eurite, and then the primitive lime rock, 

 to which this belongs. The quarry has been worked for many years, 

 in some places to the depths of sixty, seventy, and eighty feet. In 

 the month of November last, a block of marble measuring upwards 

 of thirty cubic feet, was taken out from the depth of between sixty 

 and seventy feet, and sent to Mr. Savage's marble saw mill in Nor- 

 ristown to be cut into slabs. One was taken off about three feet 

 wide and about six feet long, and in the body of the marble, exposed 

 by the cutting, was immediately discovered an indentation, about one 

 and a half inches Ions: and about 

 five eights of an inch wide, 

 in which were the two raised 

 characters. Fortunately, several 

 of the most respectable gentle- 

 men residing in Norristown were 



called upon to witness this re- 

 markable phenomenon, without 

 whose testimony it might have 

 been difficult, if not impossible, to have satisfied the public, that an 

 imposition had not been practised by cutting the indentation and carv- 

 ing the letters after the slab was cut off. 



I send you a cast of the impressions by the bearer of this letter. 

 I am Sir very sincerely, your obt. servt. J. B. Browne. 



Philadelphia, April 1st, 1330. 



An apology is due for the delay in publishing this notice, which 

 was mislaid by accident. — Ed. 



11. Hemarks on the amelioration of our physical climate; by 

 David Thomas. — Among the visions of Philosophy in the last age, 

 none has been more pleasing than the notion that with the destruction 

 of our forests, the rigors of winter will abate ; and that Hesperian 

 fruits and flowers without protection, will soon decorate and enrich 

 these northern regions. 



