158 DESCRIPTIONS OF MINERALS. 



Composition, Zn s 4 Si + aq. = Silica 25*0, zinc oxide 67"5, 

 water 75=100. 



B.B. alone it is almost infusible. Forms a clear glass 

 with borax. In heated sulphuric acid it dissolves, and the 

 solution gelatinizes on cooling. 



Diff. Differs from calcite and aragonite by its action with 

 acids ; from a salt of lead, or any zeolite, by" its infusibility ; 

 from chalcedony by its inferior hardness, and its gelatiniz- 

 ing with heated sulphuric acid ; and from smithsonite by 

 not effervescing with acids, and by the rectangular aspect of 

 its crystals over a drusy surface. 



Obs. Occurs with calamine. In the United States it is 

 found at Vallee's Diggings, Mo.; at the Perkiomen and 

 Phoenixville lead mines ; on the Susquehanna, opposite 

 Selinsgrove ; at Friedensville in Saucon Valley, two miles 

 from Bethlehem, Pa,, with massive blende. Abundantly at 

 Austin's Mines, Wythe County, Va. Valuable as an ore of zinc. 



Hopeite is a rare mineral occurring in grayish-white crystals or mas- 

 sive, with calamine, and supposed to be a hydrous zinc-phosphate. 



Franklinite, an ore of iron, manganese and zinc, is described under 

 iron, on page 179. 



General Remarks. — The metal zinc (spelter of commerce) is supposed 

 to have been unknown in the metallic state to the Greeks and Romans. 

 It has been long worked in China, and was formerly imported in large 

 quantities by the East India Company. 



The principal mining regions of zinc in the world arc in Upper Sile- 

 sia, at Tarnowitz and elsewhere ; in Poland ; in Carinthia, atRaibel and 

 Bleiberg ; in Netherlands at Limber g ; at Altenberg, near Aix-la- 

 Chapelle in the Prussian province of the Lower Rhine ; in England, 

 in Derbyshire, Alstonmoor, Mendip Hills, etc. ; in the Altai in Russia ; 

 besides others in China, of which little is known. In the United 

 States, smithsonite and calamine occur with the lead of the West in 

 large quantities . They were formerly considered worthless and thrown 

 aside, under the name of " dry bone." In Tennessee, Claiborne 

 County, there are workable mines of the same ores. Calamine occurs 

 at Friedensville, Pennsylvania, along with massive biende : the bed 

 has been, but is not now worked. The zincite, willemite, and frank- 

 linite of Franklin, New Jersey, are together worked as a zinc ore, 

 and both zinc and zinc oxide are produced. Blende is sufficiently abun- 

 dant to be worked at the Wurtzboro' lead mine, Sullivan County, New 

 York ; at Eaton and Warren, in New Hampshire ; at Lubec, in Maine ; 

 at Austin's Mine, Wythe County, Virginia, and at some of the Missouri 

 lead mines. 



The amount of zinc produced in 1872, in Europe, was about 45,745 

 tons for Belgium ; 55,744 for German v ; 3,000 for Austria : 15,000 for 

 Great Britain ; 4,400 for France ; 4,400 for Spain : making the total 

 amount 128,289 tons. In the United States the amount of zinc made 

 in 1875 was about 15,000 tons ; of zinc oxide, 8,500 tons. 



