46 PHYSIOGRAPHY. CLASS II. 



Ore is the same thing, only interrupted by irregularly 

 streaked smooth faces, which possess a slaty appearance- 

 These, however, are entirely accidental, and have no re- 

 lation to the composition itself. These varieties, and the 

 dark-red Cinnabar, are closely connected by transitions, 

 as is always the case in well determined species. This 

 is not so immediately the case in the bright red Cinnabar, 

 perhaps because the latter seems to have undergone a kind 

 of disintegration, as the traces of columnar composition 

 which are often observable, indicate. 



2. According to two analyses by KLAPROTH, it con- 

 sists of 



Mercury 84-50 85-00. 



Sulphur 14-75 14-25. 



Its chemical formula is Hg S 2 , corresponding to 86-29 of 

 mercury, and 13-71 of sulphur. The Quicksilver Liver-Ore 

 contains small quantities of carbon, silica, oxide of iron, 

 and other foreign admixtures. Before the blowpipe the 

 pure varieties are entirely volatilised. It is soluble in ni- 

 tric acid:. It may be obtained in crystalline masses, shew- 

 ing a columnar composition, on being sublimated. 



3. Peritomous Ruby-blende chiefly occurs in beds, ac- 

 companied by fluid Mercury, and the rare species of do- 

 decahedral Mercury and pyramidal Pearl-kerate, sometimes 

 only by rhombohedral L,ime-haloide and rhombohedral 

 Quarts. Some of its varieties have also been found in 

 veins, where they occur along with several ores of iron. 

 It is found besides in small quantities in the beds of brachy- 

 typous Parachrose-baryte. 



4. It occurs in beds in gneiss, at Reichenau in Upper 

 Carinthia, and at Hartenstein in Saxony ; also at Dum- 

 brawa in Transylvania, in greywacke. Included in lime- 

 stone in irregular beds, and in those veins of calcareous 

 spar which traverse it in all directions, it is found at Her- 

 magor, Windisch-Kappel, and other places in Carinthia, but 

 particularly at Neumarktel in Carniola. Its most important 

 repositories, however, are Idria in Carniola, the Palatinate; 



