THE MINERALOGY OF SCOTLAND. 343 



It is more especially the minerals retained longest in this old family of the schorls 

 which fall to be considered in the present chapter, and in chemical simplicity the first 

 of these is Andalusite, Ai Si, right prismatic. 



1. Red Andalusite, from Auchendoir, Aberdeen. 



" Red Schorl " from Aberdeenshire has been noticed in several old works, but Mr 

 James Sowerby, the author of British Mineralogy (1804), has the credit of first 

 describing the mineral. He does this with precision, but, though he shows what it is 

 not, he draws a false conclusion as to what it is. 



His description is as follows : — 



" Argilla durissima, Scotch Corundum, spec. char. Nearly pure argil ; hardest of 

 all minerals, next to the diamond. 



" This curious substance was sent me from a dealer in Aberdeen, under the name of 

 Red Schorle from Achen-door. I figure it here because it is a substance which appears 

 to be new to British writers. Upon inquiry I found it was very little known, nor was 

 it to be found in any mineralogical collection in London, nor scarcely in Scotland. 

 Even Mr Jameson had not previously obtained it. From him I hope for a good account 

 of it." 



Then follows his description, which concludes : " Among a tolerable quantity I found 

 very few with crystallised terminations ; the faces, however, are very distinct. We find 

 this fossil has been taken for a rubellite, and Kirwan's description in a great measure 

 accords with that idea. But in many respects it has been confounded with the titanite 

 of Kirwan. May the radiating variety be the substance of which Macquart says the 

 garnets are formed ? He describes it as consisting of straight fibres diverging from a 

 common centre. Kirwan mentions red schorl, and says rubellites are so called. Another 

 substance resembling this was found by Morveau in Poitou, which he presumed to be 

 adamantine spar." 



After showing how it differs from certain of the above, and giving its properties, 

 Sowerby writes : " This seems undoubtedly the ' Spath adamantin d'un rouge violet ' 

 of Bournon, which he now considers a variety of corundum." 



Sowerby finally points out Jameson's mistake as to corundum occurring at Tiree, # 

 and concludes, " therefore, ours is the only thing known at present as corundum in 

 Scotland." 



Though Auchendoir has been given as the locality for this red andalusite, I rather 

 think that both the localities in which I myself found it are in the parish of Kildrummy, 

 and that only the grey variety is found in Auchendoir. These localities lie a few miles 

 to the south-west of the village of Lumsden. The first — the south side of the Peat 

 Hill — affords but few specimens, and these are poor. The second is the southern slopes 

 of the hill of Clashnaree, in Clova. 



* The Tiree mineral is greyish-white malacolite. — M. F. H 



