,24 Bringier on the Region of the Mississippi, ^c. 



riety (which is a non-descript) covers extensive vallies, upon 

 which the pieces are scattered in piles, that are from three to 

 four feet in diameter, and two in height. The colour pre- 

 sents different shades of gray : the texture is earthy, although 

 in some places exhibiting a chatoyant knob of various col- 

 ours, having some resemblance to the cat's eye. These 

 colours are produced by the reflection of small prismatic 

 crystals, filling up the places v/hich had been left empty by 

 some other substances, that must have expanded them- 

 selves, and occasioned the protuberances on the stone, and 

 the alteration of its composition, which is in these places 

 siliceous, resembling transparent white flint. This peculiar 

 appearance, however, confounds itself with the great mass 

 within an inch from the central point, which is very hard, 

 giving fire with steel. It is composed of calcareous, sili- 

 ceous, and a little portion of argillaceous earth, besides me- 

 tallic substances, for some are striped with black veins like 

 marbles, with which it might well compare. 



While I speak of non-descript objects, or at least of what 

 I have seen described no where, I will mention a stone re- 

 serabhng granite, although it is no granite, which is found 

 ten miles south of Batisses ford, St. Francis river, on the 

 road from Laurence court house to St. Michal. The beau- 

 ty of this stone exceeds any thing that I had seen before. 

 The quarry is inexhaustible, and blocks of any size, from 

 one to a thousand feet, may be got, precisely alike in every 

 part. This is composed of pure transparent prismatic crys- 

 tals, of the size of grains of wheat, cemented with very 

 black crystals of the same size and shape, without the ap- 

 pearance of any other mixture or colour. 



Not far from that place, has been found sulphuret of anti- 

 mony, and is said to be in great quantity ; but I receive thi? 

 fact on the report of others. 



Lead Mines. 



A few miles north of St. Michal, is the mine Lamotte, a 

 celebrated place where an immense quantity of lead ore 

 was formerly dug. This ore is the common galena, having, 

 as usual, the colour of lead ; it crystalizes in small cubes. 

 Its fracture is foliated, and it soils the paper when rubbed 

 on, leaving; a metallic lustre. It affords from seventy to 



