30 HOW ON MIISTERALS FOR THE PARIS EXHIBITION. 



some handsome white and red specimens from Cape Breton. 



Leaving these we pass to 



The Webster Collection : Here we have a truly attractive 

 display of those minerals which are useful for study, and as 

 illustrations of the manifold beauty with which our earth is 

 adorned, but are not, with one or two exceptions, of economic 

 value. These specimens have been selected from those col- 

 lected by that zealous and indefatigable student of nature, the 

 late Dr. Webster, of Kentville, and most generously placed at 

 the service of the Province by his widow, on condition that they 

 be kept distinct from other minerals, as the Webster collection 

 in the Provincial Museum. It is not necessary for me to say 

 more than that of a special class of minerals for which this 

 Province is well-known in the best informed scientific circles, 

 the collection forms a very good set of illustrations. Especially 

 admired will be the group of amethysts,* which contrast so 

 well with the neighbouring more brilliant and colourless 

 apophyllite, which is here represented in the finest specimens 

 1 ever saw here. The singular and varied forms of stilbite Avill 

 certainly attract the eye of the general observer, and charm the 

 mineralogist. Fine specimens of needlestone, some in crystals 

 so thin as to show why it receives this name, and some in 

 thicker prisms forming natrolite, are side by side with very 

 different looking chabazite of various tints. Here is also a 

 very beautiful " slate," which is very easily cut with a knife, and 

 exhil)its a charming variety of patterns executed in lines of 

 different colours : this might no doubt be placed among econo- 

 mic minerals, as it would form attractive surfaces not liable to 

 he scratched. I am under the impression that there is abun- 

 dance of the rock. The infusorial earth here shewn is valuable 

 as a polishing material. Immediately beyond the Webster case 

 is a group illustrating the gypsum of Hants Co. In these 

 spcciuKins ^ve have shewn the leading varieties of those rocks 

 which are employed for agricultural purposes, and for making 

 plaster for walls and ceilings. Close to these we have a fine 



*Whilc speakin}; of amctliysts, I may say, that there is a tradition that a Nova 

 Scotia amethyst adorned the Royal Crown "of Louis XIV, of Fiance. If such n stone 



did lind such a jihice, it may have l)cen transferred to tlie Imperial (Jrown. 



