Localities of Minerals in Massachusetts. 21 



ity will ever be exhausted. It has a threefold cleavage, is 

 brittle, rriore or less translucent, and its chemical charac- 

 ters answer to spodumene. But its general colour is 

 brownish white, sometimes clove brown ; and in this re- 

 spect it does not agree precisely with the Swedish mineral. 

 Yet not unfrequently it is beautifully tinged with green, and 

 cannot be distinguished from the European specimens. It 

 exists in laminated masses in coarse granite, sometimes 

 three or four inches across and from 12 to IS inches in 

 length ; though it is not easy to detach specimens of this 

 magnitude entire. 1 cannot state positively the geognostic 

 relations of this mineral, as it has hitherto been noticed 

 oaly in bowlders. Yet at its principal locality, those bowl- 

 ders are so piled upon one another, and so few of them 

 are rounded, that it is obvious to any one acquainted with 

 the position of the granite in the vicinity, that they con- 

 stitute the upper portion of an enormous vein, or bed, or 

 protruding mass of granite in mica-slate. 



Pyrophysalite. 



Dr. Wright of Goshen pointed out to me a mineral at the 

 locality of indicolite, green tourmaline, rose mica, &c. 

 in that town, which he informed me was denominated by 

 Mr. Nuttall, the variety of topaz described by mineral- 

 ogists under the above name. Its colour is white, tinged 

 with green, and on hot iron it phosphoresces very distinctly, 

 with a yellowish green light, and loses its colour. It is 

 opaque, or only slightly translucent. It is distinctly crys- 

 tallized ; but from the few specimens I obtained, I could 

 not determine the form. 



The principal locality of the well known Goshen minerals, 

 indicolite, green tourmaline, &ic. is about three miles north 

 west of the meeting-house, on what is called the Week's 

 farm They occur, as nearly as I could ascertain, in a huge 

 vein of granite in mica-slate — although it is only from the 

 loose bowlders that they have hitherto been obtained. 

 Here we find promiscuously blended, the green and 

 black tourmalines, indicolite, spodumene, green and rose 

 and silver coloured mica, pyrophysalite, beryl, and folia- 

 ted and granular cleavelandite. I noticed also some speci- 

 mens of beautiful white talc, which I believe has not been 

 credited to this locality. 



