1853.] A few Remarks on the Rangoon Laterite. 197 



and rock-like, tougher and heavier, and in short has all the charac- 

 teristics and appearances of the more vesicular or spongiform species 

 of Laterite. In other places and under other circumstances, its 

 structure becomes more uniform and compact, and of this kind is that 

 of the hill on which the Eangoon Great Pagoda itself stands, and that 

 from Bassein, where also it appears to be generally redder in colour. 



Specimens of all these, I have the pleasure to send you. Under 

 all these forms, as may be imagined, this stone is very useful. In its 

 early nodular state, it is thrown out together with the clay of the 

 bed or matrix in which it is found, on to the surface of our roads, and, 

 when the latter is washed away by the rains, the nodules remain 

 like kunkur, forming an excellent firm road. In its more advanced 

 and perfect form, it is quarried in blocks, and hardening with the 

 characteristic quality of Laterite, it is used as in the flight of steps 

 to the Great Pagoda, where, although frequently more than usually 

 spongiform, it withstands admirably the unceasing tread of thousands 

 passing over it. 



It must no doubt have been among the specimens sent home by 

 Mr. Crawford in 1826, and is, I suppose, that which is called by Dr. 

 Euckland in his most interesting paper on Mr. Crawford's Fossils 

 and specimens, breccia ; as he writes of this, that it is cemented 

 sometimes by carbonate of lime, sometimes by hydrate of iron, and 

 " where this iron is very abundant, it affords concentric ochreous 

 concretions resembling aetites, dispersed irregularly through the 

 breccia." 



Although the stone certainly gains greatly in weight in its pro- 

 gressive states and also in hardness, yet this latter quality appears to 

 arise almost wholly from exposure to the air ; and its intrinsic tough- 

 ness is by no means, that which an ore of iron should have. JNor 

 does it affect the magnetic needle in any way after exposure to the 

 blowpipe. 



Its specific gravity, taking pieces of medium formation, and the 

 mean of three experiments, gives 2.858, which is not great. 



The red and black small masses or concretions are, at all times 

 readily scratched with the nail. It cannot be called suites ; there 

 are no looser particles in it : and scarcely with truth I think breccia, 

 for that is a compound stone, consisting of agglutinated fragments. 



