474 Phillips — Analysis of Pele's Hair and a Stalagmite. 



sible to find an analysis of a stalagmite with which to compare 

 it, but in comparison with that of Pele's Hair, their similarity 

 is very striking, differing from it not as much as do the several 

 analyses of Pele's Hair do from each other. With the one 

 exception, the iron in the stalagmite has been further oxidized, 

 but even here the FeO exists in larger proportions as com- 

 pared to the Fe„0 3 than it does in magnetite and could still 

 undergo oxidation to a considerable extent before it would 

 exist or could be represented by the formula Fe 3 4 . Both 

 from the physical character and chemical composition of these 

 stalagmites, it seems impossible to think of them as being 

 formed from solution alone. Some other cause must be sought 

 for as the chief factor in their formation. They are almost 

 without exception, both stalactites and stalagmites, porous and 

 vesicular though being quite solid on the surface, while the 

 stalactites are of nearly the same diameter throughout their 

 entire length, which in some cases may reach thirty inches. 

 Two characters very hard to find if at all in a stalactite known 

 to be formed from solution without doubt. 



The stalagmites in particular are suggestive of fused drops, 

 which falling one on the other are at the time sufficiently 

 plastic to be quite firmly welded together and congealed in a 

 slightly drooping position, while gases liberated internally and 

 being held there by the more viscous external portions of the 

 drop, would form vesicles. Then too the condition of iron 

 oxides point to some other mode of formation than that of 

 pure solution, for certainly a solution of ferrous iron flowing- 

 in a thin film down the sides of a stalactite, then dropping 

 from its point to the stalagmite would be oxidized to a far 

 greater extent than this analysis shows. Unless surrounded 

 by an atmosphere strongly reducing in character it would pass 

 to ferric iron. True the analysis by J. C. Jackson given by 

 Brigham contains no ferrous iron, but then this was of a solid 

 stalactite, which may have been one of solution. 



Again any solvent must show some selective character in the 

 substances it dissolves, but here all constituents are carried 

 down to the stalagmite in the same proportion as they exist at 

 least in Pele's Hair. I hope soon to be able to draw a closer 

 comparison by making, as soon as the material can be obtained, 

 an analysis of a stalactite and the lava above it from which it 

 is supposed to have originated by solution. In all probability 

 they will show no marked differences but everything will be 

 found in the same proportions in the stalactite as in the lava. 

 What the principal factor in the production of their peculiar 

 formation is ; if they are not formed while still in a fused or 

 plastic condition. It certainly is other than by solution alone. 

 John C. Green School of Science, Princeton, N. J., Mar. 19th, 1894. 



