MINERALOGY. 



Dryetogno- fully clouded with white, susceptible of a good polish, 

 J- has been found near Kilcrump, in the parish of white- 



* r r~ l - f church, in the game county At Loughlougher, in 

 the county of Tipperary, a fine purple marble is found, 

 which, when polished, is said to be beautiful. Smith 

 describes several variegated marbles in the county of 

 Cork ; but whether these, and others now enumerated 

 as Irish marbles, are granular litrestone, I cannot dis- 

 cover, as I have neither met with good descriptions of 

 them, nor seen any specimens. Thus, he mentions 

 one with a purplish ground, and white veins and spots, 

 found at Churchtown ; a bluish and white marble from 

 the same place ; and several fine ash-coloured varieties, 

 as that of Castle Hyde, &c. The county of Kerry 

 affords several variegated marbles, such as that found 

 near Tralee. Marble of various colours is found in the 

 same county, in the islands near Dunkerron, in the 

 river of Kenmare : tome are purple and white, inter- 

 mixed with yellow spots ; and some 



Constituent Paris. 



Geognotlic Situation This mineral occurs in vast 



beautiful speci- abundance in nature, principally in secondary forma- 

 mens hare been seen," of a purple colaur, veined with tions, along with sandstone, gypsum, and coal ; but in 



flark-jfri-vn. 



SCCONO SUBSPECII 



COMPACT LIMESTONE, Jtmeton. Dichter Kalkstein, 

 Werner. 



This Subspecies is divided 

 Common Compact Limestone, 

 and Roe-stone. 



into three kinds, vis. 

 Blue Vesuvian Lime. 



Fint Kind. 



COMMON COMPACT l.i*r.*Toxt, Jameson Gemeiner 

 Dichu-r Kalkstein, Werner. 



External Character* Most frequent colour grey, 



greyish-black, yellow, and red. frequently exhi!>it> 

 veined, zoned, striped, clouded, and spotted coloured 

 delineations; and sometimes also black and brown 

 coloured arborisations. It very rarely exhibits a beau- 

 tiful play of colours, caused by intermixed portions of 

 pearly shells. Occurs massive, corroded, in large 

 plate*, rolled mane*, and in various extraneous exter- 

 nal shape*, of univalve, bivalve, and roultivalve shells, 

 of coral*, fishes, and more rarely of vegetables, as of 

 terra and reeds. Internally dull, seldom glimmering, 

 which is owing to intermixed calcareous-spar. Frac- 

 ture small and fine splintery, which sometimes passe* 

 into large and flat conchoidal, sometimes into uneven, 

 inclining to earthy, and it occasionally inclines to 

 straight and thick slaty. Fragments indeterminate 

 angular, more or less sharp-edged, but in the slaty 

 variety they are tabular. Generally translucent on the 

 edges, sometimes opaque. fn general rather softer 

 than granular foliated limestone. Brittle, and easily 

 frangible. Streak generally greyish-white. 



Specific gravity, Splintery, 2.600, 2.720, Brition. 

 Opalescent Shell Marble, 2.673, Leonkard. 2.615, 

 Werner. 



Chemical Character*. It effervesces with acids, and 

 the greater part is dissolved ; and bums to quicklime, 

 without falling to piece*. 



small quantity in primitive mountains. 



Geographic Situation It abounds in the sandstone 

 and coal rormatiens, both in Scotland and England ; 

 and in Ireland, it is a very abundant mineral in all the 

 districts where clay-slate and red sandstone rocks oc- 

 cur. On the Continent of Europe, it is a very widely 

 and abundantly distributed mineral ; and forms a strik- 

 ing feature in many extensive tracts of country in 

 Asia, Africa, and America, as will be particularly de- 

 scribed in the Geognostic part of this article. 



Utet When compact limestone joins to pure and 



agreeable colours, so considerable a degree of hardness 

 that it takes a good polish, it is by artists considered 

 as a Marble ; and if it contains petrifactions mineral- 

 ized, it is named rtielt or lumachella, and coral or zoo- 

 phytic marble, according as the organic remains are 

 testaceous or coralline . In one particular variety of 

 lumachella or shell marble, found at Blribvrg in Ca- 

 rinthia, the shells and fragments of shells, which be- 

 long to the nautilus tribe, are set in a brown coloured 

 basis, and reflect many beautiful and brilliant pearly in- 

 clining to metallic colours, principally the fire-red, green, 

 and blue tints. It is named opalescent or Jire marUt: 

 Another lumachella marble from Astracan, contains, 

 in a reddish-brown basis, pearly shells of nautili, that 

 reflect a very brilliant gold-yellow colour. In some 

 compact marbles, the surface presents a beautiful ar- 

 borescent appearance, and these are naturally arbores- 

 cent or dendritic marble*. Such are those of Papen- 

 heim in Bavaria. 



The Florentine Marble, or Ruin Marble, as it is 

 sometimes called, is a compact limestone. It occurs 

 on the Po and the Arno, and is worked into various 

 articles at Florence. To the same compact limestone 

 may be referred the variety called Cottam Mnrble, from 

 being found at Cottam, near Bristol. It resembles in 

 many respects the landscape marble. 



In different parts of Scotland, compact limestone is 

 cut and polished as marble : this was the case in the 

 parish of Cummertrees in Dumfriesshire, in ( 'ambus- 

 fang parish, in Lanarkshire, in Fifeshire, &c. In 

 England, many compact limestones are cut and po- 

 lished as marbles ; such are the limestones of Derby- 



it dVrired from the (iretk ftmyaufu,, to Ant, or gKller, and waf by the ancientt applied, not only to lime- 

 p MM ins, agreeable colour*, and rewiring a good polub, luea a* gyptum, juptr, terpentine, and even granite 



