Trans. N. V. Ac. Set. 132 Mar. 6, 



wide celebrity from the fact of tlieir inclusions being of remarkable 

 size. In some cases they were wholly unprecedented. 



Mr. George W. Hawes, in an exhaustive paper upon the liquid inclu- 

 sions in quartz (Am. Jour. Sci., March, 1881), mentions Branchville, 

 Conn., as furnishing massive quartz containing a greater number of in- 

 cluded cavities than had before been observed, of which he gave a very 

 thorough and valuable description. He also mentions, as noteworthy, 

 cavities two mm. in diameter, from Fibia, St. Gothard, and those of 

 5 mm. in diameter, from Pike's Peak, Colorado. From Heikimer 

 county, N. Y., I have seen crystals having inclusions of even 10 mm. 

 in their longest diameter, though such crystals were of great rarity. 



Before recounting the size of the remarkable inclusions in the North 

 Carolina crystals, it might be well to describe the position of the 

 " pocket " in question, and its relation to the rock in which it oc- 

 curred. 



It was while prospecting for new veins bearing emeralds, that this 

 pocket was unexpectedly discovered. A narrow drift of quartz frag- 

 ments, with small flakes of mica, was the only exterior sign noticeable. 

 At the head of this drift, a shaft was located and sunk to a depth of 

 nineteen feet, with the following interesting results. 



The drift, within a foot of the surface, took shape as a solid vein of 

 quartz, which rapidly widened until, at six feet depth, it had attained 

 a width of fully three feet. Within the next two feet, the pocket na- 

 ture of the vein had become apparent, by the presence of hard lumps 

 of red clay, within which small crystals of quartz were found. 



The vein for the next foot was almost entirely composed of this 

 hard red clay. Then, to our great astonishment, one of the miners, 

 striking his pick very forcibly, saw it disappear wholly from his sight. 

 Naturally he was alarmed. We all thought for a time the safest 

 place was at the top of the shafi. Feeling from past experiences, 

 at the locality, that a cavity of not very unusual dimensions was 

 about to be opened to our view, we descended and resumed the work. 



Procuring a long stick, I probed this cavity, so as to arrive at its 

 size ; this being a necessaiy precaution to work it out properly and 

 safely. 



It was thus shown that the pocket was about three feet wide, 

 seven feet long, and at that time about three feet deep, though I 

 could push the stick quite deeply into the clay at the bottom. 



Exposing at full length the upper part of the cavity, it showed all 

 along its sides and at the bottom stalactitic and stalagmitic forms of 

 red mud. 



The quartz, which at one time had completely lined the pocket, had, 

 by process of disintegration, dropped into the open space below. It 



