BY W. F. PETTERD, C.M.Z.S. 57 



duced, far surpassing that from the original classic locality 

 in Siberia. As has been well remarked, " With their 

 superb colour, high lustre, and remarkably perfect crystal- 

 lisation, they are the most beautiful natural objects, 

 scarcely surpassed by crystals of any other known mineral," 

 The first discovery of the mineral was made about the 

 year 1895 by Messrs. Smith and Bell at the Heazlewood 

 Silver-lead Mine. It there occurs in bright, shining, hya- 

 cinth-red crystals, small as we now know them from other 

 portions of the island, arranged in acicular bunches, pene- 

 trating and attached to a very friable clayey gossan, inter- 

 mixed with a little cerussite, and more rarely pyromorphite. 

 They then occurred at the Whyte River Mine more plenti- 

 fully, and often intermixed with the soft country-rock on 

 both walls of the lode as well as in its capping. The 

 crystals often coated the fractures and cleavages. Patches 

 of the doubly-terminated monoclinic crystals of small size, 

 but perfect form, have been repeatedly obtained. Some of 

 the specimens were of an unusually pale colour, and per- 

 ceptibly faded upon exposure, a charact-eristic not notice- 

 able in the Dundas occurrence. At the Magnet Mine this 

 mineral is plentiful in the oxidised lode capping, sometimes 

 in the form of entangled masses of fine prisms, 2 to 3 inches 

 in length, and less frequently in loose, perfectly terminated 

 crystals of small size. In vughs, coated occasionally with 

 black manganese oxide, the crocoisite crystals were inti 

 mately associated with yellow cerussite and other salts of 

 lead. At the Adelaide Mine at Dundas an enormous 

 quantity was passed through and partially mined. It was 

 of good colour, and freely attached to and intermixed w^tii 

 cerussite of a pale-yellow colour and local habit. Psilome- 

 lane and massicot were often companions, which tended 

 to add variation to the beauty of the specimens. At times 

 patches of the rare and local dundasite were peppered 

 over with exquisitely beautiful little crystals of the chro- 

 mate. The most important find of all, both as regards 

 quantity and quality, occurred at the Dundas Extended 

 and the West Comet Mines. Here it was obtained in the 

 greatest profusion, many of the enormous crystals reaching 

 the unparalleled length of 10 to 12 centimeters, with per- 

 fect terminations. These naturally caused a mild sensation 

 when available to mineralogists in all parts of the world. 

 They were extremely brilliant, of an intense scarlet colour, 

 and translucent to almost transparent. The varied crystal 

 forms have been studied and described by Palache, Van 

 Name, Anderson, and others. The crystals have been 



