Poe ee DESCRIPTIONS OF MINERALS. 
action with acids, from allied minerals that are not carbon- 
ates; by yielding no metal, from cerussite, and by tingeing 
the flame green, from strontianite. 
Qdbs. ‘The most important foreign localities of witherite 
are at Fallowfield in Northumberland (where it is mined). 
Alstonmoor in Cumberland, and Anglezark in Lancashire. 
Itis also found in Silesia, Styria, and Sicily. In the United 
States it occurs at Lexington, Ky. 
Witherite, from Fallowfield, is used in chemical works, in 
the manufacture of plate olass, and in France in the manu- 
facture of beet sugar. 
Barytocalcite. Occurs at Alstonmoor in Cumberland, England, in 
whitish monoclinic crystals. H.=—4. G.=3-6-8°7. It is a barium- 
calcium carbonate. 
Bromlite is a trimetric mineral, of the same. composition, from 
Bromley Hill, near Alston, and from Northumberland, England. 
Celestite.—Strontium Sulphate. 
Frimetric. JA L=108° 30’ to 104° 30’. Crystals rhombic 
prisms or tabular; often long and slender. Cleavage dis- 
tinct parallel with J. Mas- 
sive varieties : columnar or 
fibrous, forming layers half 
an inch or more thick with 
a pearly lustre ; rarely gran- 
ular. Color generally a 
tinge of blue, but sometimes 
clear white or reddish. Lus- 
tre vitreous or a little pearly; transparent to translucent. 
H.=3-3°6. G.=3°9-4. Very brittle. 
Composition. SrO,S=Sulphur trioxide 43°6, strontia 
56°4=100. B.B. decrepitates and fuses, tinging the flame 
bright red to a milk-white alkaline globule, which gives 
an alkaline reaction. With soda on coal fuses to a mass 
which when moistened blackens silver. 
Diff. From barite, which it resembles, it is distinguished 
by the bright red color it imparts to the blowpipe flame, and 
its less specific gravity ; and from the carbonates, by not ef- 
fervescing with acids. 
Obs. Celestite is found in beds of sandstone or lime- 
stone, and also with gypsum, rock salt, and clay. A bluish 
eclestine, in tabular and prismatic crystals, occurs at Stron- 
tian Island, Lake Eric; Scoharie, Lockport and Rossie, N. 


