1897.] Mineralogy. 1047 
sand foot level of the Parker shaft of the N. J. Zinc Company, on or 
near the contact between granite and white limestone. There are many 
minerals in the immediate vicinity especially garnet and axinite, in ` 
the cavities of which itis generally is found. It forms dense, white, com- 
pact masses consisting of an aggregate of minute prismatic crystals 
which were doubly refracting but whose crystal system could not be 
determined. Specific gravity 3.433, hardness a little less than 3. 
Chemical composition : 
SiO, SO, PbO MnO CaO SrO K,O NaO H,O Sum 
23.66 9.00 31.03 2.48 25.95 1.40 0.13 0.40 6.36 100.32 
corresponding to the complicated formula H,,Ca,Pb,Si,S,0,,, the small 
amounts of MnO, SrO and alkalies being united with the calcium, 
This is equivalent to 5H,CaSiO,+-2CaPbSO,, This adds one to the 
small list of silicates containing lead and is the first observed occur- 
rence of a sulphite in nature. Pyrognostics: fuses at 3 to a globule, 
giving blue lead flame and with soda a lead coating; Mn reaction ; 
soluble in weak acids with separation of gelatinous silica. 
Bixbyite.—Penfield and Foote’ describe a new mineral from the 
topaz locality in the mountains, thirty-five miles southwest of Simpson, 
Utah. The crystals are implanted upon topaz and altered garnet and 
rhyolite and are evidently a product of fumarole action. 
Bixbyite is isometric, crystallizing in cubes sometimes modified by 
the icositetrahedron, 112, the crystals being upwards of 5 mm. on the 
edge. Irregular fracture with traces of octahedral cleavage, color 
brilliant black with metallic lustre, streak black; hardness 6-6.5, 
specific gravity 4.945. Fuses at 4 and becomes magnetic; powder dis- 
solves with difficulty in HC1, liberating chlorine. The analysis (by 
Foote) showed the following composition ; 
SiO, Al,O, FeO, TiO, MnO MgO O Sum 
1.21 2.538 47.98 1.70 42.05 0.10 4.38 99.95. 
The silica and alumina are regarded as due to a small amount of 
topaz which could not be separated. The composition may then be ex- 
pressed as R,O, where R is Fe, Mn, and a little Ti. But other con- 
siderations, especially its isometric form, point rather to the formula 
RO.RO, or FeO.MnO, with small amounts of MgO and MnO replacing 
FeO, and TiO, replacing MnO,. It thus corresponds closely to 
- braunite, MnO.MnO, and to the isometric perofskite, CaO.TiO,. The 
1 Am. J. Sci., Vol. CLIV, 1897, p. 105. 
