274 THE CARBONIFEROUS SYSTEM. 



" The forms of the mineral are various. It is generally highly 

 crystalline. The masses at Teny Cape are sometimes of a gray black, 

 and consist of closely packed fine long fibres, sometimes are made up 

 of bunches of stellated short crystals, and often of distinct and lustrous 

 jet-black crystals with perfect temiinations : all these varieties yield 

 readily to the knife. The Pictou ore (found at a distance of about 

 seventy miles) is coarsely fibrous. The greater part of that from 

 Walton is in soft, black, lustrous, short crystals ; one specimen, how- 

 ever, has been met with almost crypto-crystalline in structure and of 

 bluish-gray colour, closely resembling the ore from Saxony. A very 

 similar specimen from Amherst, Cumberland Co., forty miles from 

 Walton, gave on analysis in the air-dry state, — 



Water 0-61 



Binoxide of manganese . . 97-04 

 Gangue and loss . . . 2*35 



100-00 



The insoluble matter (gangue) was brownish white, and most probably 

 consisted of barytes. 



" I have no doubt that specimens of the greatest possible purity could 

 be selected at Teny Cape. I have examined a good many samples of 

 dressed ores, and have commonly found from 80 to 93 per cent, bin- 

 oxide ; a specimen obtained at a depth of 50 feet from the surface, 

 taken as a sample of dressed ore, and weighing about a quarter of a 

 pound, gave me in the air-dry state, in summer, 93*83 per cent, bin- 

 oxide of manganese, with barytes and a mere trace of iron. It is a 

 very valuable property of this ore, as regards its use by glass-makers, 

 that, when cleaned, it contains remarkably little iron. The first ship- 

 ment sent to England, consisting of about seven tons and a half, gave, 

 on analysis in Liverpool, 91-5 per cent, binoxide, and less than a half 

 per cent, of iron. 



" South of Teny Cape, at a distance of some ten miles, large nodules 

 of manganese ore are found resembling in appearance those described 

 as occurring in the ' soil ' at the fonner place. One of these weighed 

 180 pounds ; a fragment from another, weighing thirty-five pounds, 

 was examined by Mr H. Poole, a pupil of mine. The mass was black, 

 of unequal hardness, portions scratching apatite, and therefore about 

 5-5, while the rest yielded easily to the knife. The powder of the 

 harder parts was nearly as black as that of the softer. The water of 

 composition was found by weighing in chloride of calcium ; the 

 binoxide of manganese by oxalic acid ; the results were these : — 



