The New Hampshire Gazette And General Advertiser

LONDON. Dec. 12.

Abstract of an Article in the last "Philosophical Transactions," viz.

Abstract of an account of a Mass of Native Iron, found in South America, by Don Michael Rubin de Celis.

On the south side of the river Vermejo, and west of the great river Parana, is an immense plain, where there are no mountains, nor even the smallest stone, within a circumference of one hundred leagues, inhabited only by a few roving Indians, whose only employment is to gather the honey and wax with which the woods abound.

In the middle of this plain was discovered the mass of iron in question, and Don Michael was sent by the Viceroy of the river Plata to examine it. The latitude of the spot was found to be 27 deg. 28 min. south. The mass was almost buried in pure clay and ashes; its exterior appearance was that of perfectly compact iron; but on cutting off pieces of it with chisels, the internal part was found full of cavities, as if the whole had been formerly in a fluid state: On clearing away the earth from it, its length was found to be three yards, the breadth two yards and a half, and the thickness one third of a yard. The author ascribes its production, with great probability, to a volcano; and he adds, that "it is an undoubted fact, that in these immense forests there exists a mass of pure iron in the shape of a tree with its branches; to which he assigns the same origin."

The above extraordinary fact will, no doubt, excite the attention of such of our readers as are adepts in the science of Natural History, and we hope it will procure some valuable remarks from our learned readers.