BORON GROUP. 97% 
slightiy inclined to green. Thin lamine very flexible ; not 
elastic ; leaves a trace on paper, lke graphite, but its color 
is slightly different, being bluish-gray. 
Composition. MoS,=Sulphur 41:0, molybdenum 59:0= 
100. 2.5L. infusible, but when heated on charcoal, sulphur 
fumes are given off, which are deposited on the coal. Dis- 
solves in nitric acid, excepting a gray residue. 
Diff. Resembles graphite, but differs in its paler color 
and streak, and also in giving fumes of sulphur when heated, 
as well as by its solubility in nitric acid. 
Obs. Occurs in granite, gneiss, mica schist, and allied 
rocks ; also in granular limestone. It is found in Sweden, 
at Arendal in Norway, in Saxony, Bohemia, at*Caldbeck 
Fell in Cumberland, and in the Cornish mines. 
In the United States it occurs in Maine at Blue Hill Bay, 
Camdage Farm, Brunswick, and Bowdoinham; in New 
Hampshire at Westmoreland, Landaff, and Franconia; in 
Massachusetts at Shutesbury and Brimfield ; in Connecticut 
at Haddam and Saybrook ; in New York near Warwick; in 
New Jersey near the Franklin Furnace. 
Molybdenum does not occur native. An oxide is occa- 
sionally found in yellow incrustations on molybdenite, as a 
result of its alteration. It occurs, combined with lead, as a 
molybdate (page 151), and this is the only native salt con- 
taining it. The name molybdenum is from the Greek mo- 
lubdaina, meaning mass of lead, and alludes to the resem- 
blance of molybdenite to graphite. 
TUNGSTITE, or Tungstic cchre. A yellow powder or incrustation oc- 
curring with wolfram, and a result of its decomposition. Occasionally 
observed at Lane’s Mine, Monroe, Conn. 
Besides this oxide there are the native compounds, iron tungstate ~ 
or wolfram (p. 183), lead tungstate (p. 151), and calcium tungstate. 
Tungsten aiso occurs sparingly in some ores of columbium, as in cer- 
tain varieties of the minerals pyrochlore, columbite, and yttro-colum- 
bite. 
II]. BORON GROUP. 
‘In Boron, as in the Sulphur group, the most prominent 
oxide is a teroxide. 
Sassolite.—Boracic Acid. Sassolin. 
Occurs insmall scales, white or yellowish. Feel smooth and 
unctuous. Taste acidulous and a little saline and bitter. 
