On the Norian or '-Upper Laurentian" Formation. 433 



They are found in the great district of granitic rocks 

 which occupy this portion of the Eussian Empire. The 

 portion which lies in the government of Yolhynia is 

 -classified by Ossowski as Laurentian. The magnificent 

 pillars of labradorite in the Church of Our Saviour in 

 Moscow, are from the quarries in these rocks. 



Another occurrence of anorthosite of particular interest 

 is found in Egypt. Sir William Dawson, while on a visit 

 to that country in the year 1883, observed a rock that 

 resembles exactly the bedded variety of the Morin anor- 

 thosite, and which had been used for the magnificent 

 statue of Kephren, the builder of ' the second pyramid. 

 This statue now stands in the Gizeh Museum, with a few 

 other fragments of statues of the same material. Through 

 the kindness of the curator of the Museum, Sir William 

 obtained a few small pieces of the rock for examination. 

 In the hand-specimen the rock cannot be distinguished 

 from the granular anorthosite which is found in the 

 neighbourhood of New Glasgow in the Morin area. It 

 is fresh, 1 bright grey in colour, and almost entirely com- 

 posed of plagioclase, with a little hornblende, which 

 mineral is occasionally intergrown with pyroxene. It is 

 the foliated variety of the anorthosite, and the dark lines 

 which are caused by the presence of hornblende can 

 plainly be distinguished in . the statue, especially on the 

 right side. Sir William did not find the rock in place, 

 but Newbold appears to have found it among the very 

 ancient rocks which form the mountain chain stretching 

 along the coast of the Nile. It probably has there the 

 same geognostical relations as in Canada. It was probably 

 prized by the Egyptian sculptors for the reason "that it 

 possesses a pleasing colour, similar to marble, and that it 

 takes a better polish, being considerably harder. 



These anorthosites, therefore, are found in four of the 

 countries where the Archaean has an extensive develop- 



l Dawson, Notes on Useful and Ornamental Stones of Ancient Egypt.— Trans, of 

 the Victoria Institute, London, 1891. 



