DR TRAILL ON THE TORBANEHILL MINERAL. 11 
One person insisted, that, as the mineral contained carbon, was inflammable, 
and occurred in a coal formation, it must be considered as a coal. To this I would 
reply, Must we consider as coals—Naphtha, Petroleum, Asphalt, Amber, Mellite, 
or the rarer minerals, Piauzite, Ixolite, Schererite, Hartine, Walchowite, Middle- 
tonite, Retinite, Hartite, Ozokerite, &c., all which are inflammables, contain car- 
bon, and occur in the coal formation? 
On these grounds I consider the Torbanehill mineral not to be a coal, but a 
mineral not hitherto described in our systems of mineralogy, and for which I have 
proposed the name of 
BITUMENITE ; 
and which has the following mineralogical characters. 
a. Colour passing from blackish-brown (108, Syme) to liver-brown (104), and 
often spotted with hair-brown (105). 
6. It occurs massive. 
ce. It is dull in every direction. 
d. Fracture—principal fracture flat, conchoidal, inclining to splintery; cross 
fracture uneven, slaty. 
e. Fragments are indeterminately angular, with sharp edges. 
J. Examined by a strong light, the sharp edges are feebly translucent, admit- 
ting a dark reddish-brown light. 
g. It yields to the hammer in the direction of the bed, but resists blows at 
right angles to that direction, and is rather difficult to break, exhibiting a consi- 
derable degree of elasticity, and causing the hammer to rebound smartly. 
h. It is, however, soft and sectile. 
7. Its streak is quite dull, and has a pale ochre-yellow hue. 
k. ts specific gravity = 1:284. 
Chemical Characters. 
a. It is very inflammable, readily catching fire without melting, burning with 
a dense white flame, and much smoke. When ignited at a lamp, it continues to 
burn a considerable time. Some bituminous shales will also thus burn for a 
shorter time, but they leave their edges more or less white ; but with Bitumenite, 
when the flame expires, the form of the fragment is unchanged, and it is wholly 
covered with a black carbonaceous matter, derived from the dense smoke of its 
flame. 
b. When exposed to a strong red-heat in a platinum crucible for 24 hours, it 
left behind a white matter, retaining the shape of the original fragments, but 
readily crumbling on pressure into a grayish-white powder; but no part of it was 
converted into a slag. ; 
ce. When distilled in a small iron retort, it afforded an abundant dense inflam- 
mable gas, and some parafine, with a few drops of water. 
VOL. XXI. PART I. D 
