MASKELYNE. — MINERALOGICAL SPECIMENS. 79 



varied forms which they assume, including a porphyritic structure 

 on the one hand and a glassy structure on the other, as from the 

 various rtiinerals that they include. And the doleritic class on 

 the other hand, including basalt, presents a special interest in the 

 amygdaloidal cavities with which such rocks teem, and which 

 are so often found to be the home of minerals of great variety 

 and interest, well repaying a careful search. 



While passing near a coast, as, for instance, along the strip of 

 ice- foot, the rocky chtfs and bluffs should be carefully scrutinised 

 where these form the coast-line ; while the talus that conceals 

 their feet may yield specimens weathered out from the rest of the 

 mass which it would be well to search for where any peculiarity 

 is presented by the face of the rock itself. In collecting speci- 

 mens carrying crystals that are at all delicate, it would be well 

 to place them first in a fold of tissue paper and then to cover 

 them with some soft material like cotton wool before finally 

 packing tliem in an outer paper ; and it would be better to 

 insert the label next to the tissue paper. 



Where delicate crystals present salient points it is best to 

 secure them by packing them in chip boxes, into which they 

 should be wedged by plugs of cotton, and, when opportunity 

 offers, by subsequently fastening them to the box by a little glue 

 on their under side. 



It would seem to be preferable to an attempt to condense into a 

 few pages descriptions of the more important minerals (which to 

 a person familiar with mineralogy will have little value) that, for 

 the use of collectors not well versed in the science, a very small 

 series of such minerals carefully selected as representing their 

 more important characteristics should form part of the equipment 

 of the Expedition. By reference to such a small cabinet com- 

 prising perhaps some 50 specimens, the collector will not only 

 familiarise his eye with their aspect, but may compare with them 

 on his return to the ship the specimens which he has collected 

 during a temporary expedition. Thus, the large number of 

 minerals referable generally to the group of augites or those 

 of which hornblende is a type, or again those forming the group 

 of garnets, though widely differing in the case of each group in 

 respect of colour and even of habit, yet present such general 

 mineralogical resemblances that with the aid of a treatise on dis- 

 criminative mineralogy and a few implements, the collector might 

 go far towards identifying many of the minerals he has collected, 

 should he not be content with merely storing them for investiga- 

 tion at home. And with this view, it will be well to mention two 

 or three handy books by the use of which, and by the aid of a 

 few experiments he may find for himself and practically apply all 

 the information which he immediately requires. Such books are 

 either Dana's smaller Manual or his larger treatise on mineralogy, 

 preferably the latter, Frazer's translation of Weisbach's Tables 

 for the Determination of Minerals (Philadelphia, 1875) ; to which 

 may be advantageously added, for the details of results with the 

 blowpipe. Brush's Manual of Detenninative Mineralogy (New 

 York, 1875), and a Treatise on Rocks, by Cotta^ translated by 



