128 
A HARD GEOLOGICAL NUT. 
[Nature and Art, September 1, 1866. 
f 
l 
the trees. One tine hot clay in July, on our return 
from London, we were assailed by all the little ones 
at once, and with the native fervour of tine soldier’s 
daughters (they were all born in a gun-shed at 
Woolwich), “Oh! father,” they all cried together; 
“ mother says there was a great battle here ; and, 
look ! in our gold-mine we found this cannon-hall 
They then put into our hands a round object 
with an iron-like appearance, but regularly flattened 
at the poles like the earth’s figure, and with slightly 
raised concentric rings round it. Its size was about 
that of an ordinary grape-shot. It was compara- 
tively light, and, from its structure, it was evident 
that this was none of man’s work. We at once 
said, “No, children, it is far more curious than a 
cannon-ball. We will take it to London, and put 
it into the magazine ; and you — like ‘ Old Benbow,’ 
in your pretty dog-story book, ‘Awake or Dreaming,’ 
• — shall read about yourselves.” Hereat, as may be 
readily supposed, there was much delight and 
“clapping of tiny hands.” 
By the gentle persuasion of the geologist’s ham- 
mer and chisel, applied by an experienced hand, ; 
amidst an admiring crowd of lithographic printers, ) 
the ball was split in two, and presented a true 
hollow sphere (accurately delineated in our wood- 
cuts), filled with sand in tire finest possible state of 
division, and the envy of all the lithographers. 
This nodule and sand we have submitted to the 
most experienced geologists of the day, and the 
results of their united deliberations we proceed to 
record, in their own manner, for the benefit of those 
who take a scientific interest in such matters. 
The little rounded, nodular mass submitted to 
us for examination, is the most perfect of its kind 
we have ever seen ; and our researches amongst the 
old world treasures of the British Museum have 
failed to bring its like to light. Concretionary 
masses, slightly and irregularly hollowed, we have 
found both in the Jura formation of Southern 
Russia, and amongst the limestone beds in the 
neighbourhood of Poona, in India. Zeolites and J 
lime crystals, too, have we found locked up like im- 
prisoned genii within their tiny cells. Upon pro- J 
ceeding to divide our hard geologic nut on a con- j 
venient ledge of stone (a couple of well directed 
blows doing it perfectly), a quantity of beauti- 
fully fine, yellow siliceous sand, which perfectly filled 
the even circular cavity in which it had so long 
rested, was disclosed. The annexed cuts, from 
photographs, are the true size of the nodule. 
Its weight, together with the sand, is slightly 
under three and a half ounces. The crust or shell is 
composed of siliceous sand, of coarser grain than 
that which it contained, associated with iron. 
We do not think the neighbourhood in which 
the nodule was discovered likely to have been its 
place of original formation ; but more incline to 
the belief that one of the many talented men who 
have, from time to time, occupied the old house, 
must have obtained it as being noteworthy and 
curious, perhaps, from some distant district — per- 
chance even from abroad. 
The process by which a formation such as this 
has been produced, we can only speculate on and 
say rather what we consider possible, than lay down 
any absolute train of causes as having operated in 
bringing about the particular arrangement of sub- 
stances before us. 
It is %)ossible then that a siliceous pebble, worn 
smooth and rounded by the rushing snow-torrent 
and grinding avalanche of the glacial period, or, 
perhaps, from the beach of some sea of past geo- 
logic age, may have been deposited amongst the 
drifts of shifting sand. This, in time and in asso- 
ciation with the iron element (water borne), may 
have surrounded our pebble, which, acting as a 
nucleus, became gradually encrusted, layer after 
layer, with that which was slowly but surely be- 
coming stone, and building up a dungeon for it. 
As periods and geologic ages pass away, and 
are lost in dim obscurity, other changes take place ; 
upheavings and displacements occur ; the sandstone 
rocks are in ijieir turn ground, fretted, and Avorn 
cloAvn, becoming sand as before, and leaving little 
of the original mass but the hard crust surrounding 
a round caAuty filled Avith fine siliceous sand, the 
result of the slow but unaccountable disintegration 
of our imprisoned pebble. 
[We have, just before going- to press, received fromNorfolk 
specimens closely allied to that under consideration, but not 
larger than pistol-balls. We shall furnish the result of 
our examination of them in our next.] 
