MINERAL RICHES OF OUR VICINITY. 99 



there be such, several characteristic varieties are gene- 

 rally associated ; and some compound ores beside the 

 pyrites which usually accompany metallic veins. 



Manganese is worked upon the Tamar; and of this 

 we find four or five varieties crystallized as grey man- 

 ganese ; and as many red, carbonate or silicate. 

 Black manganese occurs in shining stalactiform or 

 bunch-of-grape like masses. 



But the richest ground for the mineralogist is where 

 the course of slate borders upon the granite ; where 

 copper mines usually occur : there are found the great- 

 est abundance of iron pyrites, as well as those of 

 copper ; all of high metallic brilliancy and splendid 

 colours. Their forms and associations with other 

 minerals are not less beautiful and interesting ; and 

 their varieties are exceedingly numerous. They occupy 

 a large portion of every mineralogist's cabinet. Besides 

 these are the fine green and blue carbonates, phos- 

 phates, and arseniates of both copper and iron ; and 

 the uranite ; not less remarkable for their rich and 

 vivid colours than for their delicate forms and texture : 

 and as they frequently associate, in the same specimen, 

 with the splendid pyrites above mentioned, they seem 

 to bear away the palm from the combinations of fluor, 

 mentioned as related to the lead ores. Chlorite, pearl 

 spar, carbonate of iron, tungstate of lime, and occasi- 

 onally oxide of titanium, quartz, chalcedony, and many 

 other minerals contribute to spangle the specimens 

 raised from the copper lode : and lastly the native 

 copper itself forming incrustations and mimic vegeta- 

 tions of the most brilliant kind, frequently associated 

 with a velvety surface of the acicular, or rich transpa- 

 rent octohedrons of the ruby oxide ; whilst it contrasts 

 with the others in colour and form, associates with 

 them in beauty, and completes the assortment ; so that 

 every tint and hue, seen in the rainbow, is found and 

 rivalled in the produce of a copper mine. 



Far be it from the writer of this paper to induce any 

 one to saunter the time, which belongs to other duties, 

 in poring over the face of a rock, or kicking about the 



