CANCRINITE 437 



description are rare and seldom appear in the market. Usually it is stones of a green 

 colour which are cut as gems, red stones being scarcely ever used for this purpose. 



In external appearance the peculiar specimens of elaeolite just described are apt to be 

 confused with cymophane and cat's-eye. Both, however, are harder than elaeolite, which 

 can be scratched by quartz, while these cannot. Moreover, they are both heavier and sink 

 in liquid No. 4 (sp. gr. = ^•65), in which nepheline floats. 



Elaeolite has been longest known from the south of Norway. It occurs in elaeolite- 

 syenite in pieces ranging in size up to that of a man's fist at several places in this region, 

 among which may be mentioned Laurvik and Fredriksvarn, the material found at the 

 former place being for the most part brown and green and that at the latter being red. 

 Large fragments of red and of green elaeolite are also found in a similar rock on the 

 eastern shore of Lake Ilmen, near the smelting-works at Miask in the Ural Mountains. 

 Greenland is another locality for this mineral ; while the principal locality in the United 

 States is Magnet Cove in Arkansas, where fine flesh-red, cinnamon-brown, and yellowish- 

 brown elaeolite of gem-quality occurs in abvmdance. At Gardiner and Litchfield, in Maine, 

 elaeolite of a fine green colour is found ; and Salem, in Massachusetts, may be mentioned as 

 another locality. In all eases the mineral occurs as a constituent of a rock similar to the 

 one in which it is found in Norway and the Urals. 



CANCRINITE. 



The yellow cancrinite, which occurs in association with the elaeolite of Litchfield, 

 Maine, is sometimes cut and worn as a gem on account of its pretty colour. It is composed 

 of the same chemical elements as elaeolite, but contains in addition carbonic acid and 

 water. It crystallises in, the same hexagonal forms as nepheline. It is never perfectly 

 transparent, and at best is only strongly translucent; its colour ranges from pale yellow to 

 dark orange-yellow. The same mineral is also found at other localities ; and further is not 

 always of a yellow colour, but may be rose-red, green, &c. It is used as a gem only in the 

 United States, and even there but rarely. 



