214 
IOWA ACADEMY OP SCIENCE 
able to explain why it should have appeared to you to be red, 
unless it was seen about sunset. 
‘‘The stone conies from quarries at Kiveton Park, east of. 
Sheffield in Yorkshire, where it occurs in the Magnesian Lime- 
stone division of the Permian formation. Other quarries in the 
same kind of stone are worked at Stutley and Mansfield (red 
and white). 
“Very little sandstone is used by London builders.’^ 
The stone is used in the bank of England, Westminster Abbey 
and St. PauPs Cathedral, the Mansion House, Guild Hall, and 
many other buildings both public and private in the great me- 
tropolis. Neither the chemical analysis, nor the physical char- 
acters accounts for the disintegration in the Houses of Parlia- 
ment. In appearance and composition it is not widely different 
from the Roman travertine which is still standing in buildings 
constructed 2500 years ago. The Houses of Parliament were 
begun in 1846, and completed in 1862. 
II. THE RED SANDSTONE FROM THE VOSGES MOUNTAINS. 
This is a handsome durable rock of which the Strassburg Ca- 
thedral and other public buildings in the city are constructed. 
The most interesting of the buildings is the Cathedral. The 
present structure was built in the eleventh and twelfth cen- 
turies, and is a mixture of Romanesque and Gothic. The most 
beautiful portion is the facade which is also the purest Gothic. 
The numerous statues of prophets, saints and apostles, and the 
fine carvings in the rock, like crystallized lace, show how the 
material is adapted to the most artistic kind of carving in stone. 
The tower is nearly five hundred feet in height and therefore 
one of the tallest structures in Europe. It is likewise Gothic 
and exquisitely carved. The rock is easily transported from the 
quarries in the mountains on the river 111 which bisects the 
city. The specimen was sent us by Professor Dr. H. Bucking, 
Professor of Mineralogy in the University of Strassburg, to 
whom we desire to express our hearty thanks. The analysis is 
as follows : 
Si 0,. . 
Al, O 3 
Pe, O 3 . 
Ca 0. . 
Per cent. 
, . 77.57 
. . 14.45 
, . 4.50 
. . 1.62 
