XXX. Notice concerning the Shropshire Wither ite. 

 By ARTHUR AIKIN, Esq. 



MEMBER OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY, 



AND SECRETARY TO THE SOCIETY FOR THE 



ENCOURAGEMENT OF ARTS MANUFACTURES AND COMMERCE. 



[Read 6th December, 1811. J 



A HE Witherite or native carbonate of barytes, still continues to be 

 one of the rarer productions of the mineral kingdom. The only 

 thoroughly ascertained locality of this substance, according to Pro- 

 fessor Jameson, (System of Mineralogy, I. 575,) is Anglesark in the 

 county of Lancaster, where it was first discovered by Mr. James 

 Watt. It is here found in veins traversing the independent coal 

 formation, and accompanied by blende, galena, calamine and heavy- 

 spar. To this locality however may be added, on the authority of 

 Klaproth, (Analytical Essays, I. 389,) a mine near Neuberg in Upper 

 Stiria, where this mineral occurs in a bed of spathose iron ore. 



The mine at Anglesark is, I understand, abandoned : it may there- 

 fore be a matter of some interest to the members of the Geological 

 Society, to state that my researches during the last summer in pur- 

 suance of my mineralogical survey of Shropshire, have made me 

 acquainted with a mine, within the bounds of that county, in which 

 witherite occurs very abundantly. 



The most hilly district of Shropshire extends from the borders of 

 Montgomeryshire to the tov/n of Church Stretton, having the broad 

 valley of the Severn for its northern boundary, and stretching as far 



