Supposed New Mineral Species. 357 



was said to be not uncommon ; little Columbian owl, Columbia riv- 

 er ; Tengmalm's owl, near Bangor ,* violet-green swallow. Rocky 

 Mountains ; rough winged swallow, Louisiana ; Rocky Mountain 

 fly-catcher. North California ; and Townsend's Ptilogonys, Colum- 

 bia river. The proportion will be seen to be very large, being 

 no less than ten out of seventy species described. 



Bat we have already extended our article too far, and must 

 take leave, at least for the present, of a subject so replete with 

 interest. We have only to add, that if the residue of the publi- 

 cation shall equal the numbers now issued, with especial pains 

 taken to secure the accuracy of the coloring of the several plates, 

 the present work will without exception be the most splendid 

 one on natural history that has yet been published in the country. 



Art. XI. — On a supposed new Mineral Species ; by Charles 

 Upham Shepard, M. D., Prof, of Chemistry in the Medical 

 College of South Carolina. 



The mineral here described, is one with which mineralogists 

 have, to a certain extent, been acquainted for several years. 

 From a list of localities, by Dr. Joseph Barratt, prepared in 

 1824, and published in the 9th volume of this Journal, (pp. 39 — 

 42,) it appears to have been first discovered in 1820, at Phillips- 

 town, Putnam county, New York ; and was from that time until 

 very recently, regarded, in common with the other varieties of 

 the same substance hereafter to be mentioned, as Sphene. A 

 second locality of the mineral was made known by Dr. A. F. 

 Holmes, of Montreal about eight years ago, who obtained it in 

 considerable abundance from Grenville, in Canada. 



My attention was first directed to a peculiarity in the cleavages 

 of the Grenville specimens, in the year 1834. I observed 

 they afforded an oblique rhombic prism, whose lateral faces in- 

 clined to each other, according to measurements with the com- 

 mon goniometer, under angles of about 123° 30'. The fact ap- 

 peared to me of sufficient interest to be mentioned in my Trea- 

 tise on Mineralogy, and I accordingly introduced it in the form of 

 a note, under Sphene, (Vol. II, part 2nd, p. 201.) 



In a letter from H. J. Brooke, Esq., dated London, May, 

 1837, (accompanied by a box of minerals,) my attention was di- 



Vol. XXXIX, No. 2.— July-September, 1840. 46 



