Dffcr'tption of feint new Fojjfih, ipj 



IX. 



Short Notice ceneernlng the Properties and external CharaBlers of fame new Foffihfrom Sweden 

 and Norway ; together with feme Chemical Remarks upon the fame. By Mr. D^Asdrada, 

 In a Letter to Mr. Beyer^ Mafter of the Mines at Schneeburg, , 



SIR, 



Wi 



HEN you had the goodnefs to Infpeft fome fpecimens of the new foffils, which I 

 liave found in my laft travels in Sweden and Norway, and brought along with me, you 

 deGred to become acquainted at leaft with their number and names. I comply with this 

 fuggeftion ; but wifti, at the fame time, I were alfo able to communicate to you a defcrip- 

 tlon in my own manner, as well as the refults of the analyfes which I have already made of 

 fome of them, together with that of others, which at prefent are the objeft of my occupa- 

 tion, and of thofe of which Profeflbr Abilgaard has undertaken the analyfis at Copenhagen. 

 However, having deftined thofe defcriptions and accounts partly, for the Academy of 

 Sciences at Stockholm, partly for Copenhagen, partly for the Berlin Society of Friends 

 inquiring into Nature, and partly for the Philomathic Society at Paris, I muft for the pre- 

 fent deny myfelf the pleafure of defcribing them fully. 



You will receive, together with this letter, only a few of thefe fpccies of foffils, together 

 with a fhort notice concerning their properties and charaders. 



I. ACANTHICONE. 



The colour is leek and olive green, and fometimes, though feldom, that of the green- 

 6nch. Specific gravity from 3.4075 to 3.3562 *, but that of the more compaft fort 3.3000. 

 It IS not fcratched by quartz, and it gives fire with fteel. The texture of the mixed fpe- 

 cimens, or in lumps or cryftallized, is foliated, but in the others fine fplintery, and more 

 compaft. The laminse are thin, very coherent, and of a three-fold croffing.* The entire 

 fplinters are quadrangular parallelopipedons with oblique terminations. On the edges it is 

 tranfparent. The internal luftre is of the vitreous kind. The cryftals are, (i.) quadri- 

 lateral, hexahedral and decahedral columns, terminated in dihedral, tetrahedral, and hexa- 

 hedral pyramids; and fometimes alfo without pyramidal terminations. (2.) Tables or 

 plates, quadrilateral, oblong, rhomboidal, fharpened off on the long narrow lateral facets. 



• Durchgang in the German. Many foflils are capable of being fplit in various direftjons ; To that the 

 laminse ciofs or tranverfe each other under various angles, and hence each particle of fuch a foffil muft belong 

 to one or more laminx. If thefe cut each other in one direftion only, as in mica, talc, &c, it is called 

 Jingle croffing ; if in two direftions, as in the feld-fpar, hornblende, hyacinth, it it cMeiX tijuofold crdffing i 



if in three, as in fpathofe iron ore, ponderous fpar, galena, &c. it is then called threefold crajpn^, and fo on. 



See Emmerling X.thxhuzh der Mineralogie, 1793, Vol. HI. 479.— Tranfl, 



VoL.V. — August 1801. Cc If 



