105 
In his “ Manual of Geology,” Prof. Haughton gives his 
opinion upon the cause of the flexibility of the stone. 
“ A most remarkable circumstance sometimes occurs in 
the formation of sandstones which are not composed of 
pure particles of quartz, but a clay mixed with them^ 
namely, that the particles of quartz mixed in this clay or 
paste are permitted a certain amount of motion.” If you 
take an ordinary sandstone, with a lens you can see the 
separate particles, and that each particle is touched on every 
side by a number of other rounded particles that hold them 
all in their places, so as to form of the whole a rigid rock.’’ 
But in the Delhi stone — “ you have a rock composed of par- 
ticles of quartz which are not in contact with each other; 
but lie embedded in a paste of felspathic clay, which clay 
permits a certain amount of motion between the particles 
of the mass.” 
The specimen before the meeting came from the Kaliana 
quarry. When superficially examined it ' will be seen that 
it is not a schistoze rock, and hardly a particle of mica is to 
be found in it. It looks very like some sandstones of the 
Lancashire millstone grit. The grains of silica have a 
flattened and matted structure, the whole being porous and 
loosely held together — rather friable on the edges. It is 
freely interspersed with particles of a yellowish clay; it 
bends from its own weight, and when held up by one end 
freely oscillates. The bending is easy up to a certain point ; 
it then becomes suddenly quite hard and rigid. Any 
further strain or a smart blow would then readily frac- 
ture it. 
Mr. Alfred Morgan, Proc. Liv. Geo. Soc., vol. 3, p. 151, 
suggests that the true explanation of the flexibility of the 
rock might be, “ That doubly metamorphosing conditions 
were concerned in its production, a solidifying process to 
give tenuity to the earthy paste, and a partial dissolution 
to remove the rigidity of its first solidification.” 
Mr. Plant also exhibited some fine fioccose infusorial 
earth in thick deposit at the gold diggings, Talbot, Victoria- 
