OF CENTRAL CANADA PART II. 79 



E. SULPHIDES OF BISMUTH AND ANTIMONY. 



24. Bismuth Glance : Light lead-grey, often with yellow or blue- 

 ish tarnish ; streak, black. Rhombic in crystallization, but occurring 

 commonly in lamellar and fibrous masses. H = 2.0 ; sp. gr. about 

 6.5. BB, melts very readily into a black globule, which gradually 

 volatilizes, with deposition of a yellow ling of oxide (and, beyond 

 this, a greyish-white coating of sulphate) on the charcoal*. A small 

 residum is sometimes left ; this generally shews with borax or phos- 

 phor-salt the reactions of copper and iron (see Part I.). Dissolves, 

 with separation of sulphur, in nitric acid. The solution dropped 

 into excess of water forms a milky or opaline liquid. Not affected 

 by caustic potash. One hundred parts of the pure mineral contain : 

 sulphur 18.75, bismuth 81.25. 



Bismuth glance is a comparatively rare mineral. It has not 

 hitherto been discovered, at any locality, in sufficient quantity to 

 form a commercial ore. In Canada, it occurs in small lamellar and 

 sub-fibrous masses in a quartz vein, with numerous interpenetrating 

 crystals of black tourmaline, at Hill's Mine, in the rear of Tudor, 

 one of the northern townships of the County of Hastings. Some 

 small samples have also been found near Cornwall, Ont. 



25. Antimony Glance or Grey Antimony Ore : Light lead-grey, 

 often with dark, or iridescent, tarnish. Rhombic in crystallization, 

 but occurring mostly in fibrous or granular masses. H = 2.0, sp. gr. 

 4.52 4.62. Melts per se in the flame of a candle. BB, melts 

 rapidly, and becomes volatilized in dense white fumes, a white 

 oxidized coating being deposited on the charcoal. The point of the 

 flame, if directed on this, is tinged pale blueish-green. A hot solu- 

 tion of caustic potash converts the powdered ore into an orange- 

 coloured compound of similar composition. One hundred parts 



* contain : sulphur 28.2, antimony 71.8. 



Of rare occurrence in Canada. Hitherto, found only in small 

 quantities, with iron pyrites and mica, in a band of crystalline dolo- 

 mite, in the Township of Sheffield (Lot 28, Con. 1), in Addington 

 County ; and in small masses mixed with tremolite, under similar 

 conditions, in Marmora. Also, in radiating fibrous masses with 

 Native Antimony in narrow veins traversing slates of the Quebec 

 Series, in the Eastern Township of South Ham. 



*A11 compounds of Bismuth when fused on charcoal with a mixture of potassium iodide and 

 sulphur form a vivid scarlet coating on the support, as first shewn by Merz and Von Kobell. 



