182, DESCRIPTIVE MINERALOGY. 



Uses. This is one of the most important mineral products. It is quite largely employed in 

 the manufacture of sulphur matches ; in the preparation of sulphurous acid, which is used to 

 bleach woollen and silken goods ; to disinfect vitiated air, etc. Sulphur is also employed for 

 cementing iron bars, and for taking impressions from seals and cameos. But its great uses 

 are in the manufacture of vermilion, gunpower, and oil of vitriol. 



LOCALITIES. 



Cayuga County. At Thomson's plaster bed in the town of Springport, there are found 

 thin seams of sulphur intermixed with transparent selenite. The sulphur is semi-crystalline, 

 and has all the characters of the volcanic specimens. It does not appear to have been pro- 

 duced by the decomposition of iron pyrites, but it is probably an original deposit. 



Small masses of this mineral have also been found in the beds of earthy gypsum near Ca- 

 millus in Onondaga county, and elsewhere. It is, however, seldom abundant. 



Greene County. Some localities are noticed in the Catskill mountains, where this mineral 

 occurs in the fissures of the rocks, with alum, and where it is supposed to have been formed 

 by the decomposition of iron pyrites. 



Orange County. Sulphur in a pulverulent form, or in small grains, has occasionally been 

 found in the cavities of a ferruginous granitic rock in the vicinity of West-Point. I have 

 also seen small grains of the same mineral disseminated through porous white quartz from 

 this county. I am at a loss whether to refer these to the decomposition of iron pyrites, or to 

 consider them as original depositions. 



In addition to the above localities, it may be stated that in the vicinity of several of our 

 sulphur springs, efflorescences or thin layers of sulphur are found on leaves, twigs, and frag- 

 ments of rock. In these cases the sulphur is deposited in consequence of the decomposition 

 of the sulphuretted hydrogen which these springs evolve. This is very strikingly the case at 

 the sulphur springs near Chittenango in Madison county, at those of Avon in Livingston 

 county, at Farmington in Ontario county, and at Sharon in Schoharie county. Moss or other 

 vegetables over which these waters flow, become incrusted with sulphur, which, however, 

 is largely mixed with earthy and saline matters. 



Sulphur also occurs in various part of the State, as one of the results of the decomposition 

 of iron pyrites. But in these cases, it is seldom sufficiently pure to exhibit the characteristic 

 marks of the mineral. 



BITUMEN. 



Bitumen. Ckaveland and Shepard. — Bitume. Hauy. — Naphtc, with an appendix including Malthe, Asphalte, 

 &c. Beudant. — Mineral Oil and Bitumen. Pkillips. — Asphalte and Elastic Bitumen. Thomson. — Black 

 Mineral Resin, Naphtha, Petroleum, Bitumen or Mineral Pitch. Jameson. — Schwarzes Erd Harz. Mohs. 



Description. Colour white, grey, yellow, brown and black. Streak usually unchanged. 

 It occurs massive, disseminated, globular, reniform, stalagmitic and liquid. Fracture con- 



