48 Review of ChavelandPs ^lineralogy, 



book, and which give it pecuUar interest to the American, and 

 even to the European, reader. 



In another edition, (which we cannot doubt wiH speedily 

 be called for,) he will of course add whatever is omitted in this, 

 and we should be gratified to see a good article on the subject 

 of the aerolites or stones which have fallen from the atmosphere. 

 This subject is one, in our view, of high interest ; and although 

 in strictness it may not claim a place in a tabular view of mine- 

 rals, (we must confess, however, that we see no important ob- 

 stacle to its being treated of under the head of native iron,") 

 there can be no objection to its being placed in an appendix. 

 The fall of stones from the atmosphere is the most curious and 

 mysterious fact in natural history. 



It may seem perhaps too trivial to remark, that the annexa- 

 tion of numbers, referring to the pages, would be a serioiK 

 addition to the utility of the tabular view. Very few inad- 

 vertencies have been observed — the following may be mention- 

 ed : Amenia, in the State of New-York, is printed (by a typo- 

 graphical error we presume) Armenia ; and Menechan, where 

 the menechanite is found, is mentioned as occurring in Scot- 

 land, but it is in Cornwall. 



Authors seem agreed that the black-lead ore is an altered 

 carbonat, but they seem not to have been so well agreed as to 

 the nature of the blue-lead ©re. In the cabinet of Colonel 

 Gibbs, there are specimens which appear satisfactorily to illus- 

 trate both these subjects. The black-lead is by the blowpipe 

 alone reducible to metallic lead ; there is one specimen in the 

 cabinet referred to, which is blackened on what appears to 

 have been the under side, and seemingly by the contact of 

 sulphuretted hydrogen gas ; that which was probably the 

 upper part remains unaltered, and is beautiful white car- 

 bonat of lead ; this appearance is the more striking, be- 

 cause tlie piece is large and full of interstices, by which the 

 gas appears to have passed through. The blue ore is in lai^ge 

 six-sided prisms of a dark blue or almost black colour ; where 

 the prisms are broken across, they present an unequal appear- 

 ance ; sometimes they are invested ; and sometimes slightly, 

 and at other times Ae&^ly , penetrated by sulphuret of lead, hav- 



