212 UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA PUBLICATIONS 



mineral association in the Chesterfield district of South Carolina is pyro- 

 phj'llite and cyanite. 



The mineral has been noted in a variety of occurrences and mineral asso- 

 ciations, both in the massive and crystallized form, from a somewhat large 

 number of widely separated foreign localities.* The occurrences include 

 several localities each in Salzberg and Stj'ria, Austria; several each in 

 Switzerland and Sweden; at Gulabgarh, India; Tijuco in Minas Geraes, 

 Brazil; and near the entrance of Churchill River into Husdon Bay, Kee- 

 watin, Canada. From the pubhshed descriptions the occurrence and 

 mineral association cf lazulite at Horrsjoberg in the district of Elfsdalen, 

 Sweden, bears striking resemblance to the occurrences in North Carolina 

 and Georgia. 



Probably the first occurrence of this rare and interesting mineral in the 

 United States was noted by Dr. H. S. Hunterf in 1822, near Crowder's 

 Mountain in the southern part of Lincoln (now Gaston) County, North 

 Carolina. Specimens wei-e forwarded by Hunter to Professor Olmsted 

 of the University of North Carolina and were noted in the latter's report 

 (second part) to the Board of Agriculture. A few years later the mineral 

 was found in greater abundance near the southern end of Clubb's Mountain 

 about thirty miles northeast of Crowder's Mountain. Hunter reports 

 the occurrence of lazulite in the latter locality in arenaceous and micaceous 

 quartzite, occasionally embedded in compact quartz, and in the triangular 

 cavities of a reddish cyanite. According to this observer the mineral is 

 massive but imperfect crystallizations may be observed in some specimens. 

 Later observers^ noted the occurrence of the mineral in the Gaston County 

 localities in pale and dark blue crystals and crystalline masses in quartz- 

 ite associated with rutile, cyanite, pyrophyllite, corundum, quartz, and 

 damourite. 



The chief interest in lazulite at present is scientific, although apart from 

 its value as museum specimens, the mineral would probably make an opaque 

 gem or ornamental stone, as the color which is usually lighter than lapis 

 lazuli for which lazulite when first found was mistaken, is often equally 

 as rich. § 



At the Georgia locality (Graves Mountain), lazulite occurs in the mas- 

 sive, fine-grained, sugary quartzite (itacolumite) which, according to Shep- 



* Dana, E. S., Op. cit., p. 799. 



t Hunter, C. L., Amer. Journ. Sci., 1853, vol. xv, pp. 376-377. 

 i Genth, F. A., Proc. Amer. Phil.Soc, 1873, vol. xiii, p. 367. Kunz, G. F., N. C. 

 Geol. Survey, Bull. 12, 1907, p. 57. 

 § Kunz, G. F., Op. cit., p. 57. 



