ELISHA MITCHP:LT. SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY. 55 



CoLUMBiTE. — A single large crystal of this ore of colinnhic 

 acid was found near Liberty Church, Alexander county. Its 

 density was 6.28. It therefore consisted more largely of tan- 

 talic acid than is commonly found in columhite. The mineral 

 thonglit to be ^I^schyuite, now credited to this State, has been 

 shown to belong here. 



Samarskite. — "^'everal hundred pounds have been mined and 

 sold during the past five years from the old original locality at 

 Wiseman's, in Mitchell county. Several new eaitln have been 

 discovered in it, i. e., Decipia, Phillipia, Samaria, etc. 



EuxENiTE. — This species has not as yet been found in this 

 State. The brown mineral fi-om Wiseman's mine lacks the 

 titanic acid essential and is only altered samarskite. 



^I^SCHYNITE AND Yttro-tantalite. — These s[)pcies have not 

 as yet been identified from this State and sliould not be included 

 in the list of North Carolina minerals. 



Polycrase, or an allied species, has lately l)een found on 

 the Davis land, in Henderson county, near Green River. It is 

 a cohnubo-titanate of yttrium and uranium, and a qualitative 

 analysis has shown all of these elements to be present. The 

 proportion of the yttrium earths and of uranium seems to be 

 higher than found in the Norwegian polycrase, and the colum- 

 bic and titanic acids seem to be present as a complex inorganic 

 acid and not as a mere mixture. It may be a new species. 



Rutherfordite. — A doubtful species long credited to this 

 State. It is most probably identical with the fergusonite of the 

 same region first recognized by me in 1879, and analyzed by 

 Smith and Mallett. 



Fergusonite (columl)ate of yttria, erbia, etc.). — I hiive found 

 very fine crystals at the Wiseman mine, in Mitchell county, but 

 with nothing new as to form. Some were more than one inch 

 long. The locality about the Pilot Mountain, in Burke county 

 (Mill's mine), has produced many crystals of this rare mineral. 



Xenotime (yttrium-phosphate). — Some few extraordinary 

 crystals were found in Alexander county at a place about three 

 miles east from the Emerald mine. At first they were not unnatu- 



