1842.] On a Cylinder and certain Gems, fyc. 317 



" The hole is not drilled through the exact centre, and, as may be seen 

 by looking into it, has been drilled from opposite ends. Its hardness 

 is very considerable, as a good file will scarcely touch it. It is magnetic, 

 but not strongly so, and its spec. grav. by two trials at a temperature of 

 82° is 4.97. Neither nitric nor muriatic acids produce any effect on 

 its surface. Its colour is a dark black grey, with minute shining specks, 

 (probably of magnetic oxide of iron or mica,) only seen in a strong light, 

 or by a magnifier. 



" As it is by far too valuable to take even the minutest portion for 

 a blowpipe analysis, I am deprived of any farther means of ascertaining 

 what it can be. Its high specific gravity places it far out of the class 

 of basalts, to which it would at first be referred on a cursory inspection ; 

 and its hardness out of the magnetic iron ores. I am inclined to think 

 it a ferruginous titanite, analogous to that described by Klaproth from 

 Aschaffenbourg, in Silesia. Perhaps, though not exactly a physical pro- 

 perty, I should not omit to remark the admirable sharpness of the cha- 

 racters, which it is doubtful any metallic tool could have produced. 



"I add here from the London translation of 1801 of Klaproth's Essays, 

 p. 504, the chemical characters of his fossil : — 



' Colour. — Iron black, accompanied outwardly by a moderate, in- 

 wardly by a stonger, metallic lustre. 



'Fracture. — Uneven and of a fine grain; fragments indeterminately 

 angular. 



' Hardness. — Very brittle and hard, and only with difficulty ground to 

 a subtle powder, which is black. 



* Specific Gravity, 4.74. — (This was probably at 60°.) 



' Magnetism. — Not attracted by the magnet even in the small splinters, 

 nor does it attract the least particle of iron. The more remarkable is it, 

 therefore, that it attracts and repels the poles of the magnetic needle, or 

 any moveable magnetic bar. 



' Composition. — Oxyde of Iron, 78. Oxyde of Titanium, 22=100.' 



u So far Klaproth. I may add, that the degree of magnetism which he 

 here describes, is that which our cylinder also possesses, and which is 

 now well known to be merely an inferior degree of the same element." 



The character Major Rawlinson informs me, is the third, or mixed 

 order of the Cuneiform writing. He supposes the inscription to express 

 some formula of prayer, or adjuration. The cylinder being evidently an 

 amulet to be worn suspended round the neck, or the arm, or perhaps 



