What Sand May Do

Kot many yc:irs ago the mcrcantile world ot' Prussia was groatly exoitod by i niysterious robbery, whioh for an unusually long time puzzlcd tbc acnte polioc ui tliüt kingdom. The Roy;il Bank had sent a box with a hundred thoueand dollars froiu Berlín to Munster. Upon its arrival, the chest lookcd as if no strange hand liad touohed il., bat when oponed a package of a tliousand dollars was missing, and its iilaue wasiilled up with smid. In vain did officials and detectives oudeavor to discover a trace of the ingeaious robber. A renowned geologist accidentally heard of the difticulty, and at once suggestod that somo of the sand should be sent to lus study. An hour's examination enabled hiui to state with tolerable certainty tin: loeality from whi'jh the sand vas probably 1 Thereupon samples were sent him from uil the stations through which tho box had passed, and he decided upon the vcry town where the robbery must have been committed. With this cue tiie detectives v, ent once moro to work, and soon the thief was discovered and convicted. ■ iried of apparontly wor I things. liv evory vallo.y and plain, on the coasts of vast continents, and along the banks of tiny brooks, water is forever rolling up and down countless grains of sand. This universal sand consists in the main every where of tho saino substance, the well-known mineral which in all parts of the world and in all languaires of men appcars under its old Germán name of quartz. It owcs its rast distribution to its hardneas, for it is the hardest of all stones, Burpaasing evon thp hardest substance known in the vegetable and and animal kingdoms - the enaxnei of our teeth. Henpe the hulicrous complaint of G'oethe's AVerther, who writes to his beloved Lotto : " Only, no more sand on your letters. In a moment of raptare I oarried your note to my lips, and my teeth suffered sadly." All other admixture are henee soon reducod to almost impalpable power by its superior power, and only enough is left to give to t!" sand of eaeh loeality soine slight peculiarity of iorm and ecilor. Thus, where porphyry prevails, the sand wiïl assume a fair pink hue, while the bright BCales of mica ïnako it known as silver smid. Nature, however, allows ñone of her ehildren to drift idly through the world, but inakes thein work hard and perseveringiy for her Master. Ilcnce quartz also, bard au it is, and indisoluble by any known fluid, must iinally chango its fonu and yield to the nttiveisal solvent, water. Wjierever Band appe irs, it. ia képt in perpetual motion, and tliii incessani fnction redueos it iiuaïly into almoat invisible partiólos, which are dissolved in water. Plants aliso, wnên decömpösingl restore to the earth tho small portion of quartz which has given them their strength ; and as quartz eau besides be eliminated from clay, it circulótes, after all, in spite of its apparently indestructible hardness, throngh all the reahns of nature. Hut, when it is thus, as it were, dissólved, it no longer retains tho form of small, irregular grains, such as we see in sand, but appears, as far as shapo and are eoncemed, elad in forms of perfect beauty. Il is one of tho many marvolous laws which rule our earth that solid bodii :; asume íixed forms ; whorevor they fiud rest- orystallize, as wecallit - their shape dependí, not on their suiTOundings, but on permanentlaws. Thtis,wheneyerquftTfe (■liaugos into erystal, it appears witli unfailing regularity as a pyramid of six sides, or a column with six sides, erewned y a pyramid. Nor does this unifonnity ;i[ . :i ■ morel y to tho general outlino; all h; nngles eorreapoaa witli the utmost Idelity. It matters little whether the raass bo largo or small ; there may be but one column, or quite a nuraber joincd togetlier, and the substance muy appear liiii and unattractive, or clear and brilïaut liko a diamond- tho six sidi-s aro terei wanting, the angles never vaiy, uu!, abovo all, tho point at tho end of tho iryetal, which is ctaprooteristic of quartz, s oever absent. A curious t'ualuro conneoteu witu tho ordinarj rook-crystal is Hut manner in whioh it is formpd. Tho largest and cloarost masses havo beon found in Madajaacar, where travolers report the existence of rocks mcasuring five and six feet in diameter; but littlo is known witU precisión about them. In tlio Daupbine, nowever, and in Switzerland, they aro l'.iini'l in enormous masses in sdcalléd crystal caves. Ono of tho latter, ncar the Grimsel Pass, and discovered in 1720, was ono hundred and twenty feit aml ut tiie largest plaoo tas feet wide. IIire orystals of oight hundred weigtat, and numerous smaller masseg, woro found, which rewarded the luoky findr wiih a handsome fortune. Henee the Swiss urBue tho scarch aftei crystakwith asmuoh ■: s and eoutempt of dangcr as the huiit of the otiamois. While superstition and vague wonder no longor lond to rock-crystals a fictitious i vahie, scieuce has ïeasned to app; I thoir truc usefulness, and uses them as "glasses" for optieal instriuuents and gpectacleg, for which theirhardnesa raakea tliom bivaluable, as they are not injured by dust, and henee reuaain pure and clpar forever. It is thus tliat jjoor, dcspiscd sand, trod undor loot without a, thuught by high iiid low, bceomcs, as it Wero. spiritHahzed, and aesume i farm of mal beauty, while it lends to man its aid, and enables him to sotu'ch the socTots of the inñnitely small, a tvoll as to sWeep the vast spaces of the universo. In all the realmg of nattura therc is no chango líke that Whiob tra-nsforms the shapoless Band of the pluins into a prioeless crystal, aiid I makes óï the wortbleM rofuse of ancient mountains aii in'fttluable servant ot' man.