MINERALOGY. 11 



TETRAnKDRITE. Sl'LPHANTIIIO.NITE OF CoPPER. GrEY CoPPER OrE. 



According to Mr. O'lviley, tins ore occurs on several islands of tho IMeri^ni 

 Archipelago, and possil)ly in Jlartali.in, Ijut nothing certain is known regarding 

 tho localities it is found in. Bournonito, sulphantimonite of lead and cojiper has 

 been obtained near Maulmain. 



Group III. CULORINE COMPOUXDS, etc. 



Haute. Sodium Chloride. Common Salt. 



Salt is iiiannfact lived on a small scale in Pegu from sea-water. Tho con- 

 centration is effected in thick earthen pots ranged in scores round a circular oven, 

 pierced with rows of holes into which the [lots lit, and are so sulijcctcd to the beat 

 of a fire within. English salt and rock salt from India are also Imported. 



Group lY. FLUORINE COMPOUNDS. 



Fluorite. Calcium Fluoride. Fluor or Dekbysiiike Si'ar. 



"I have a small specimen of bluish crystals of fluor-spar which the Biirinan 

 ■who brought it said was found in the northern part of Province Amherst. As 

 the mineral is often found in connexion with lead, it is probable they will be 

 found together in these 2'i'ovinces." This discovery of Dr. Mason's is still un- 

 corroborated. 



Group V. OXYGEN COMPOUNDS. 

 A. BINARY COMPOUNDS. 



Corundum. Native Alumina. 



Crystallized alumina, when transparent, constitntes according to its colour 

 sapphire, oriental ruby, oriental topaz, or oriental emerald, etc. Wiien opaque, or 

 hiassive and granular, it is termed corundum {karand), and emery when the mass 

 is partly comjiosed of hajmatitc and magnetite. Crystallized alumina is tlie 

 hardest substance after the diamond. 



" The red sapphire (writes Dr. Mason) is usually denominated the oriental 

 ruby. Dana says, 'The best ruby sapphires occur in tho Capelan Mountains near 

 Syriam, a city of Pegu.' This is an advance on Phillips, who made ' Pegu a city in 

 Ceylon.' Still the mineralogists make slow progress in Geography. In 1833, a 

 letter from a Eoman Catholic priest, D. Amata, was published in the Journal of 

 the Asiatic Society of Bengal, which showed that the Capelan Mountains are 

 about seventy miles north of Ava, instead of being in the vicinity of Rangoon, aa 

 they would be if ' near S^'riam.' " 



The Capelan Mountains of Dana are doubtless a corrupt form of Kynt-pen, the 

 name of a village near the mines, and the mines themselves are simply pits 

 sunk in the ruby-producing gravel. Mr. Emanuel in his work on precious stones 

 remarks, " The most valuable tint is that particular sliade called by jewellers the 

 'pigeon's blood,' which is of a pure deep rich red without any admixture of blue 

 or yellow. The stones called spinel, and balas rubies are not rubies at all, but 

 belong to the class of sjiinels, a stone of an entirely different nature and form of 

 crystallization." Mr. Emanuel also gives tho prices of rubies as follows, that 

 is, for the finest and purest stones: 1 carat, .£14 to £20; 2 carats, £70 to £S0 ; 

 3 carats, £200 to f2oO; 4 carats, £100 to £4.50. But all depends on colour, and 

 a ruby of 4 carats might, if it missed the true tint, be not worth £12.' 



' 1 eamt=t grains ; l^jl J iarats = l oz. Troy. 



