KAMANISTIQUIA SILVER-BEARING BELT. 251 



Note. — Very frequently thin seams of liver colored blende lie in 

 the slate next to the vein. 



Fluorspar. 



The amethystine colored which is considered a good indication of 

 silver by miners and which is more or less common in all these veins. 



The green colored is very plentiful in some veins and usually found 

 in the central portion of vein coating quartz crystals. 



It is crystallized in cubes and octohedrons and cubo-octohedrons. 



One specimen in my possession shows an amethystine 

 colored cube within a green one. 



An interesting mineral is mountain tallow as called 

 by the miners, but which is a decomposed talc or 

 steatite. Its formula 'iMgO, SiO.2, H<f). It is very common in 

 these veins frequently associated with asbestos or a tremolite. In the 

 Beaver Mine it occurred in masses a foot or more in width, almost 

 filling the entire vein. It is undoubtedly an alteration product of the 

 slates which frequently present seams of talc in their structure. It 

 is very soft cutting like tallow and of a variety of colors, green, 

 bluish-green, and turning brick i-ed. It holds considerable mechani- 

 cally combined water which on evaporation destroys the color, leaving 

 the gi'een and bluish-green varieties a dirty white color resembling in 

 its physical properties meerschaum. It is frequently associated, in 

 fact usually associated with the nuggets of argentite occurring in the 

 coarse-grained calcite. 



Calcite. 



This occurs usually coarse-grained and free from met. silver, though 

 thin folia of sulphide of silver underlying the crystal faces are 

 common. 



The various crystal forms which the calcite assumes are interesting. 



