Crystalized Steatite. 275 
are three-eights of an inch in diameter and more than half 
an inch in length. Ihave one which is double the dimen- 
sions just meationed. The surface of the crystals is of a 
brown colour, produced by the action of the weather. But 
when the crystals are separated, their faces are of a yellow- 
ish white colour. When fractured, the crystals present an 
uneven surface, with a structure inclining to the fibrous, 
The same fibrous appearance is seen on some parts of the 
Steatite which is destitute of crystals. The crystalline 
Po ucture is exceedingly indistinct, except near the sur- 
ace. 
_ The predominant form of the erystals is aitatiided orate} 
terminated at one or both extremities by a Pyramid of the 
same number ohaidea' The truncations are numerous,— 
porwr the edges of the prism or pyramids, and at 
others on 
the angles, or at the vertex of the pyramid, form- 
ing very different faces. In one case, the face produced by 
truncation is of the kind, which the Abbe Haiiy designates 
by the term, Rhombifére. These crystals agree generally 
with the description of the cen crystals of Steatite, 
fod in the Principality of Bareuth. “ Mineralogists are 
not agreed respecting these scone some ee them 
as true <a others as false ones.”” Jameson considers 
‘them decidedly pseudo-morphous, the ptistietie iyncle hay- 
camel j sis, that they domopioa 4 
lected by imbedded Hern which had fallen oa, cou 
approximate so nearly to the form —— for the produc- 
the group under consideration, The crystals, too, 
sometimes separate from each other, aa the ech fa- 
ces are perfectly smooth and regular, neither of which fa- 
ces could have been formed by a mould, for no part of the 
mould could have intervened without remaining between 
them. . But no trace of the cease tot mould is to be 
seen. The supposition that they were first formed in 
widchinvenel and afterwards — cio their present re is to- 
pen one nc a this group is considered, is T ridicu- 
rfe ct near the sur- 
pe 
face of the crystals, and the ‘imperfect crystallization extends 
