Miscellanies. 387 





I pass over the other remarks, because I see that, unhappily, we 

 do not understand one another, so that I can say, with more reason 

 than Rousseau to the archbishop of Paris, that ive have not a com- 

 mon language. [ (Signed) A. Del Rio. 



Mexico. December 15. 1835. 



7. Notice of a large crystal of Columbite ; in a letter to the 

 editor, from Prof. Johnston, dated Wesley an University, Middle- 

 town, April 27, 1836. — It is generally known, that a new deposit 

 of columbite was discovered a little more than a year since, at the 

 feldspar quarry about three miles from this city. Mr. Shepard says 

 in his Mineralogy, (Vol. II. p. 323) u the crystals [found at this lo- 

 cality] are occasionally distinguished for their regularity and high 

 degree of lustre, and are generally of unusual dimensions for the 

 species. One of these (he continues) weighs three or four ounces." 



" Associated with the crystals of columbite, are apatite, uranite, 

 and albite." 



Below, I have attempted to give a description, accompanied by 

 a figure, of a crystalline mass of columbite, obtained at this local- 

 ity some time the last summer, by Mr. P. E. Hubbard, the present 

 proprietor of the quarry. It is probably of much larger dimensions 

 than has before been seen ; weighing 6 lb. 12 oz. avoirdupois. The 

 whole mass, of which this is the largest piece, I am informed, weigh- 

 ed 14 pounds. It had fallen into several pieces, however, when 

 discovered by the workmen. 



This piece, though it is considerably irregular, as is always to be 

 expected in such overgrown crystals of any species, yet distinctly 

 shows itself to be a part of a regular crystal. There are attach- 

 ed to it, or rather imbedded in it, several pieces of feldspar and 

 quartz ; and several of the fractured surfaces are coated with minute 

 crystalline masses of uranite. The specific gravity of the whole 

 is 5.4. 



The figure below is one half the natural size, and is lettered as 



far as practicable, to correspond with Mr. Shepard's figure in bis 



appendix, which was drawn from a specimen from this locality. As 



the faces are not perfectly smooth, and the angles were necessarily 



measured with the common goniometer, the results of course cannot 



be considered perfectly accurate. It will be seen, however, that 



they correspond very nearly with those of the specimen measured by 

 Mr. Shepard. 



