MINERALS AND GEOLOGY OF CANADA. 149 
A POPULAR EXPOSITION OF THE MINERALS AND 
GEOLOGY OF CANADA. 
BY E. J. CHAPMAN, 
PROFESSOR OF MINERALOGY AND GEOLOGY IN UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, TORONTO. 
(Continued from Vol. V., page 531.) 
The present article concludes the Second Part of this subject, com- 
pleting our Synopsis of Canadian Minerals. 
D. Aspect Non-metallic (stony, glassy, etc.) Hardness insufficient 
to scratch glass*. 
D. 1. Soluble (sapid) minerals. 
To this group belong: Roek Salt, Sulphate of Ironor Green Vitriol, Sulphate 
of Copper or Blue Vitriol, Sulphate of Zine, Alum, &c., none of which have yet 
been discovered, at least as solid minerals, in Canada. Rock Salt occurs elsewhere 
in lamellar masses and in cubes, either colourless or coloured brown, red, &e. It 
has a strongly saline taste, and is deliquescent. Green Vitriol occurs chiefly on 
decomposing iron-pyrites, in white or greenish crusts and acicular crystals. Blue 
Vitriol, as a bluish efflorescence or in crystalline groups on decomposing copper 
ores; and also in solution in mine waters, from which the copper may be precipi- 
tated on pieces of iron plate. Both yield a strong, metallic taste. An effores- 
cence of Epsom Salt, a substance easily recognized by its peculiar taste, has been 
noticed in certain serpentines from Marmora, C. W. 
D. 2. Taking fire when held in thin splinters in the flame of a 
candle. 
The minerals belonging to this group admit of a natural subdivision into two 
sections, according to the following arrangement :—§ 1. Burning with blue flame 
and odour of Sulphur or of Garlic :—Native Sulphur, (aspect, resinous; yellow, 
sp. gr. about 2°0); Orpiment, (golden or lemon-yellow, paler in the streak, sp. 
gr. 3°4-8°5); Realgar, (red, with orange-yellow streak); Cinnabar or sulphide of 
Mercury, (red, with red streak; sp. gr., in pure specimens, 80-82). Orpiment 
and Realgar are compounds of sulphur and arsenic, and yield, when burning, an 
alliaceous or garlie-like odour, § 2. Burning wilh yellowish flame and bituminous 
or resinous odour:—Amber, and also the various kinds of Bituminous Coal, 
including Jet, with Brown Coal or Lignite, and Bitumen or Asphaltum, may be 
placed in this section. Of these minerals, two only have been met with in Canada: 
(1.) A kind of indurated bitumen, occurring in small, black, and more or less 
friable masges, in crevices in the Trenton Limestone and other fossiliferous rocks, 
sometimes filling, indeed, the interior of fossil shells, and much resembling coal 
® See the heads of this arrangement or classification at page 170 of Vol. Y. 
Vou. VI. L 
