64 JOURNAL OF THE 



cally we may hope to find large masses of it, as is the case in 

 Norway and Sweden. 



I have had a considerable quantity of thoria and thorium 

 salts pre[)ared from the monazite-sand found in Burke county, 

 near Biindletown, and I believe that the quantity there available 

 would aggregate many thousand pounds, should a demand arise 

 for its production. 



AuERLiTE.* — While about to complete a contract, furnishing 

 twenty-six tons of zircons, this mineral was found in small 

 quantity. I returned to the locality for more material and 

 was obliged to mine four hundred pounds of zircons, addi- 

 tional, in order to get enough of this new mineral fur analysis 

 and description. Thus far I have only had three ounces of it, 

 but believe that in the neighborhood of its discovery some nota- 

 ble deposits of this rich ore of thoria and of thorite or orangite 

 will be discovered. It has only been found at the well-known 

 Freeman zircon mine, in Henderson county (on Green River) and 

 on the Price land, three miles south-west. At both places it 

 occurs in disintegrated granitic and gneissic rocks, and has been 

 found after the manner of gold-washing. 



Its specific gravity varies from 4.4 to 4.766, the darker 

 colored mineral being the densest. Its hardness = 2.5 to 3. It 

 is very brittle and is easily crumbled. Color, from pale lemon- 

 yellow to orange and brown-red. Forms are like the zircons of 

 the region, oidy they have a tendency to a longer prismatic 

 development. The crystals are often found attached to unaltered 

 zircons in parallel position. One twin crystal was found having 

 twiiming plane parallel to 1-i, like zircon twins. 



Analyses (by Mackintosh) show it to be either a hyd rated 

 thorium-phosphate mixed with a hydrated thorium-silicate, or a 

 partial replacement of silica, in thorite, by phosphoric acid. Its 

 composition has a direct bearing u[)on the presence of thoria in 

 monazite (q. v.) and seems to prove that thoria can be considered 

 as partially present in monazite as a phosphate. The analyses 

 gave the following results: 



*Am. Jour. Sci., Dec, 1888, pp. 4C1 — 463, Hidden arid Mackintosh. 



