98 MINERAL RICHES OF OUR VICINITY. 



Shaugh. When intersected by quartz, particularly as 

 it approaches the granite, fine specimens of red jasper, 

 as bright as sealing wax and veined with white, are 

 very common : pieces of this are often seen in the 

 streams along the Tavistock road, as we approach the 

 down. They are very beautiful, but difficult and costly 

 to polish. Crystals of quartz, tinged purple, and 

 thence called " amethystine," are found also in the 

 quartz veins as they approach the granite. 



The slate also contains lead mines ; of which two or 

 three have been worked, on the Tamar ; that at Beer 

 Alstone having been the most extensive. From these 

 mines are obtained finely crystallized specimens of 

 galena, (lead ore) in several varieties as to form ; some 

 of them also containing silver, in considerable propor- 

 tion. Silver ores too are found there, of three or four 

 kinds, and sometimes native silver, in fibres like moss 

 work. Beside what may be properly called ores, the 

 lead is also found in the states of phosphate, sulphate, 

 arseniate, and in a very beautiful, silky-looking variety 

 of carbonate. Crystals of Bournonite also sometimes 

 occur ; and blende, in various crystalline forms, is a 

 very frequent product. Fluor is an abundant and 

 most beautiful accompaniment of lead mines ; giving 

 fine, large crystals of great variety in form and colour ; 

 incrusted sometimes with regular crystals of transpar- 

 ent quartz, or of rhomb spar ; at others with sparkling, 

 iridescent pyrites ; again with lenticular carbonate of 

 iron, the crystals coating one another so as to represent 

 the opening of a rose ; and very frequently of all these 

 ingredients combined ; forming specimens rivalling in 

 beauty any the mineral kingdom affords. The waste 

 heaps at Beer Alstone, even now, culled over and 

 weather beaten as they have been, will afford the cir- 

 cumspect observer many very good and characteristic 

 specimens. Rich veins of lead, with their accompany- 

 ing treasures for the mineralogist, doubtless still lie buri- 

 ed in our slate country, to reward the future adventurer. 



Antimony also is said to occur in it, though no 

 locality of 'this mineral is known to the writer. If 



