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NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



pyramidal faces, I take to be the lateral planes of the primary 

 form, and the broader ones to be the secondary faces, arising from 

 the truncation of the oblique angles of the primary crystal. These 

 crystals vary in length from i to J of an inch, are dull, grayish 

 white, and with rough faces, often covered by crystals of iron 

 pyrites. They are so thickly disseminated through the clayey 

 limerock as to form two thirds of its mass, and render it very 

 difficult of fracture. The form of its crystal can scarcely be de- 

 tected, except at the surface of those masses which have been 

 weathered, when their rough and dull faces appear. . . 



The last and the most interesting variety, if we consider the 

 ambiguity its determination presents, and the immense quantity 

 in which it exists, is the milk white, massive variety. . . And T 

 confess I should have been slow to pronounce it strontianite. ex- 

 cept that the cleavage indications of heavy spar and of celestine 

 were both wanting, and that it closely resembled a massive variety, 

 accompanying the compound crystals above described. It some- 

 what resembles the purest white variety of petalite, although the 

 particles of composition are occasionally arranged in a manner 

 to give a broad reflection, and its luster is more resinous than 

 vitreous. Specific gravity = 3.5. 



I could not detect with the microscope the smallest particle of 

 calcareous spar, or heavy spar, or indeed any other substance, 

 intermingled with the mass. But to make sure of the absence of 

 the latter mineral, a small fragment was pulverized and intro- 

 duced into a glass flask, upon which dilute muriatic acid was 

 affused. It was immediately dissolved with effervescence, with- 

 out leaving the slightest residue. 



"A fibrous heavy spar in delicate parallel fibres about half or 

 three quarters of an inch long " has been found in the south- 

 east corner of the town of Carlisle, seven miles northwest of 

 Schoharie Court House. The exact locality has not been re- 

 corded, but is near the hamlet of Grovenor Corners. It is said to 

 occur in " a blue gray slate beneath the limestone". This may 

 be the Brayman shale, but it is more likely that the mineral 

 occurs in the shaly Rondout beds. Associated with this is a 

 fibrous aragonite, in which the fibres are of the same diameter, but 

 of double the length. 



A deposit of blue gray celestite in tabular crystals has been 

 obtained in considerable abundance from the waterlime in the 

 cliff east of Schoharie. Loose specimens are found in the stone 



