382 HENRY G. SMITH. 
OCCURRENCE OF EVANSITE IN TASMANTA. 
By Henry G. SMITH, 
Laboratory Assistant, Technological Museum, Sydney. 
[Read before the Royal Society of N. S. Wales, December 6, 1893. | 
THe Sydney Technological Museum having come into possession 
of a small collection of minerals from the mines of Zeehan and 
district, in Tasmania, I found when investigating them for the 
purpose of classification, that this specimen gave different reactions 
than those expected. It came from the Mount Zeehan Company’s 
Mine, and was stated to be known locally as “soda crystals.” 
The small globular excrescences covering the surface, somewhat 
botryoidal in appearance, are entirely amorphous and without a 
trace of crystallization, colourless, and these have a vitreous lustre 
resembling glass, or milky-white and slightly opalescent, often 
translucent, very brittle, streak white, hardness near 4, specific 
gravity 1:842 at 60° F. 
Heated in a closed tube it decrepitates and gives off much water 
which has an alkaline reaction. When heated with nitrate of 
cobalt solution, gives an intense blue colour. Heated before the 
blowpipe, gives a greenish flame. Soluble in sulphuric, nitric, 
and hydrochloric acids. These properties only differ slightly in 
some respects from the original Evansite from Zsetcznik, Hungary; 
examined and described by David Forbes, F.R.s.* 
The specific gravity of the Tasmanian specimen isa little lower 
than the original, given as 1:939, although two of Mr. Forbes’ 
determinations gave 1:872 and 1°822. The water given off in the 
present specimen is alkaline, while that of the original specimen 
was neutral. 
In all the determinations and analysis only the perfectly glassy 
beads were taken. No fluorine, silica, or iron were detected in 
these. The mineral is a basic aluminium phosphate. 
* Phil. Mag., Iv., XXVIII., p. 341, 1864. 
