MINERALOGY. 21 



Of this kind is a ftaladtitical cruft, which 

 has formed a ftratum, or rather filled a 

 Mure between the ftrata of the earth at 

 Helfmgborg in the province of Skone ; it 

 is of a very fmgular figure, reiembling 

 conical caps of paper placed and fixed one 

 in the other, diminifhing by degrees both 

 in height and the other dimenfions. 

 2. Solid Stalactites of a 1 parry texture, Sta- 

 lactites folidus particulis fpatofis. 

 a. Hollow, and in form of a cone, Coni- 

 fer mis. 



1. White, and femitranfparent, from 

 Chaceline near Rouen in France *. 



* In making lime-water {aqua colds viva) one may obferve 

 how the iirne gathers, rtrit like a pellicle on the fur face of 

 the water, and afterwards, when this breaks, falls down to 

 the bottom in form of a fcaly fediment, which is called ere- 

 rr.or cauh j after that, a new pellicle is formed, which like- 

 wife falls down ; and in this manner it continues for a lonjr 

 while, although the lime water had before been pafTed thro* 

 a filtre. This we may alfo imagine to be the way in which the 

 works of Nature are performed : whence the llaladlites 

 commonly is of a fcaly texture, or at leafl difcoven fome 

 tendency towards it. But a ftalaftites of a fparry texture, 

 fuch as aho^e-mentioned f<om Rouen, may be fuppofed to 

 be owing to a more copious principle concurring at once : 

 and in the fame manner the fparry limeftone and its cryftalli- 

 fations feem [j .cwife to have been produced, fince they, as 

 far as I know, are only found in clefts, which, when they 

 have been filled up with a ftony matter, the Swedifh miners 

 Call Klyfter % and Gangar cr Veins. In regard to this, the fta- 

 Jact'tes, the fparry limeftone, and alfo its crynallifations, 

 might all be ranked under the fame title in a fyltematical de- 

 fer, ption, as very little different from one another, if it was 

 not neceflfary in defcribing mines, and other works,, to give 

 them their fcparate nau.es : becaufe it is certain, that a piece 

 which is broken from large fp^r-cryftals, or from fparry fla- 

 lacute?, may in a cabinet pafa extremely veil for a common 

 fparry !:ir.e:'.one, without leaving any fofpiciori of iti former 

 fi^u e, before it was broke. 



C 3 SEC T. 



