1 882. 1-33 Trans. N. Y. Ac. Sci. 



was in the mud and clay in the bottom of the pocket that all the 

 crystals subsequently found were discovered. Only ai the very bot- 

 tom were the walls found " in situ." This pocket differed in no re- 

 spect from those commonly occurring in this region. They are all 

 shrinkage fissures, situated in a counter direction to the strata, of very 

 limited extent, and nearly perpendicular in position. The country rock 

 is gneiss, trending N. N. W. and S. S. E., with a dip nearly vertical. 

 A thick layer of soil everywhere mantles and conceals it from view. 

 Three days of careful work, by our most trustworthy and painstaking 

 miner, were spent in exhausting this pocket. 



No mineralogist could' have been more careful in preserving the an- 

 gles and edges of the crystals than was this miner. Not one crystal 

 of the hundreds taken out was in any way injured. 



Over four hundred pounds of choice quartz crystals were obtained 

 from this one pocket, besides the nine emeralds previously spoken ot 

 and exhibited before this Academy. Of good, bad, and indifferent, there 

 was found in all nearly half a ton. 



It was noticed that all the crystals that had been directly attached 

 to the walls were semi-transparent and without any great development 

 of the prismatic faces ; while, implanted upon them, were crystals of 

 great beauty and transparency, varying from citrine-yellow to dark 

 chocolate-brown m color, and for the most part perfect in form. Two- 

 thirds of them were perfectly terminated at both extremities and with 

 considerable prismatic development. It was these latter that contained 

 the fluid-inclusions. 



Large plates of rosetted mica were quite common, and on them 

 were implanted small crystals of rutile and of quartz, in rare perfec- 

 tion. It is to these smoky crystals, found in this pocket, that I now 

 ask your attention. When the smoky crystals were first found, they 

 were noticed to contain many cavities seemingly filled wi:h a very clear 

 and lustrous fluid. Though no bubbles of air (or gas) were observed to 

 move in these cavities at that time, yet I knew these crystals to be the 

 so-called " water crystals" of mineralogists. 



I take pleasure in recording the remarkable size and quantity of the 

 cavities enclosed in these crystals. The longest cavity noticed was 

 nearly two and one half inches long and one quarter of an inch wide. 

 Cavities of one inch were not uncommon, while those of one quarter 

 inch and less were, in truth, without number. 



Many of the crystals seemed to be made up almost wholly of cavi- 

 ties, whose walls were barely thick enough to keep them separated. 

 Many hundred, plainly visible to the unaided eye, could have been 

 counted in a single crystal. 



For some time after these crystals were removed from the pocket, no 



