FOSSILIFEROUS HEMATITE NODULES IN LEICESTERSHIRE. 65 
enclosed fossils have also of course been in them from the 
first. We look upon them, in fact, as Pseudomorphs.* 
Here are analyses of the two kinds of iron ore :— 
Clay Ironstone.! 
Haematite. J 
Protoxide of iron . 
. 46* * * § 14 
Ferric oxide. 
95-77 
,, manganese 1*40 
Manganous oxide ... 
•03 
Alumina . 
. 3-53 
Sulphur . 
•072 
Lime . 
. 3-43 
Silica . 
3-35 
Magnesia . 
. 2-13 
Loss on ignition, con- 
Carbonic acid. 
. 32-04 
sistiiig of water and 
Silica . 
. 8-63 
carbonic dioxide ... 
*56 
Water, &c. 
. 3-04 
100-34 
99-782 
Metallic iron. 
. 35-95°/o 
Metallic iron. 67-036% 
The specific gravity of clay ironstone = 3*75 
The specific gravity of the haematite =4*62 
The haematite was slightly polaric. 
Granting that these stones were originally nodules and 
parts cf beds or “measures” of coal-strata carbonates, their 
high sp. gr. shows that something has since entered into 
their composition ; and the variety of structures, densities, 
colours, magnetism, and so on, points to changes they have 
undergone—changes of great importance. 
Perhaps if the stones are looked upon as the result of 
chemical change we shall be correctly describing them. At all 
events they may be termed pseudomorphous. “ Para- 
morphous”§ or pseudomorphs by paramorpliism, is, I think, 
the best word to apply to them. 
That the change or alteration above mentioned has taken 
place either in the breccia or before the nodules commenced 
their travels or were washed out of the coal-measure debris 
is evident. It does not seem possible that it could have been 
brought about during the removal and prior to the deposition 
of the stones in the Permians; though we know nothing of 
the conditions they may have gone through, or of the length 
of time they passed through in a state of unrest. This, how¬ 
ever, matters little, though further on I shall endeavour to 
* Pseudomorpli =fahse form. In mineralogy, “ a mineral which has 
replaced another and has assumed the external form of the mineral 
so replaced.” (Geikie.) 
t A South Staffordshire ironstone. 
+ Analysis of Permian breccia pebbles by G. E. Harrison, Birmingham. 
§ Paramorplis are certain pseudomorphs in which a change of 
molecular structure has taken place without alteration of external 
form. 
