Intelligence mid Miscellanies. 375 



haps it was fallen in with by some of our troublesome 

 neighbors, or perhaps some one else, thinking from its 

 weight, that it might contain more ^'■precious stones" than 

 such as may be picked up every day by the way side, found 

 his curiosity excited beyond the power of resistance. How- 

 ever, it was well that the box reached you at all. I am dis- 

 posed to think that few of the articles were taken quite away, 

 but some of them must have been rendered worthless from 

 the loss of their labels, and others more than worthless by 

 having their labels exchanged for such as did not belong to 

 them. If any of these specimens have been thought worthy 

 of a place in your cabinet, it is desirable that their labelling 

 should be correct. For this purpose, I beg leave to offer a 

 few remarks, such as have suggested themselves to me from 

 an attentive perusal of your list of notices. As you doubt- 

 less have that list at hand, by recurring to it you will easily 

 understand me. No. 3*, is called an animal relic of a con- 

 voluted form, from the Dead Sea. Now these relics, I sus- 

 pect, are, in this quarter, pecuhar to Mount Lebanon ; where- 

 as one of the specimens at least, which I brought from the 

 locality mentioned on the label was of a class resembling the 

 volcanic. No. 14. Both these pieces from the Holy Sepul- 

 chre should have been white. The black one had got out of 

 its place. No. 15. " Gethsemane and the Holy Sepulchre" 

 are certainly no places for petrified shells, nor can I recollect 

 any one specimen sent that could have been common to the 

 two localities. These words were perhaps originally writ- 

 ten on an envelope, containing other labels with their spe- 

 cimens within. Of Gethsemane the characteristic stone is 

 flmt or horn stone, of which there is a profusion, similar to 

 Nos. 27, and 40. The word "Holy Sepulchre" must have 

 meant the church of the Holy Sepulchre, and the fragments 

 intended were very likely two or three little hemispheres of 

 red marble of the size of musket balls, quality of Nos. 16, 

 34, and 35. Pieces of this kind, I remember, were, among 

 others, broken off by our servant, unbidden, from an orna- 

 mented part of the church. The beryl, No. 31, is doubtless 

 a specimen which was presented me by a young Swiss trav- 

 eller. It came from some of the mountainous parts of Egypt. 

 I fear also that the label, No. 36, had been misplaced upon a 

 Mount Lebanon shell. It may be, however, that Gornoo 

 produces such petrifactions. The Egyptian specimens hav- 



See Vol. X., p. 21 of this Journal. 



