568 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
Jade. — M. A. Damour has analyzed the mineral known as white or 
Oriental jade, which is brought from Eastern Asia, fashioned into orna- 
ments. He considers it as an Amphibole of the species Tremolite. Still 
more recently he has examined specimens of what is called green jade, a 
mineral made know'll by the French expedition to China. It is of an 
apple-green colour, clouded with darker shades often very like emerald. 
He finds that it differs materially from white jade, being heavier and 
harder. It also differs in chemical composition, according to which Damour 
would place it near to the species of Wernerite called Dipvre. He did not 
succeed in isolating the colouring matter, which he presumed arose from 
oxide of nickel. He remarks that this mineral must not be confounded 
with certain jades of a sombre green, pear-green, or olive, which also 
come from Asia in a w'orked condition, and which are merely coloured 
varieties of white jade. For the Werneritic jade he proposes the name 
jadeite, to distinguish it from the amphibolic jades. 
SamarsMte is a reniarkable mineral found in the Ilmen Mountains, near 
Miask in the Ural, and also in North Carolina. It contains a large 
amount of niobic acid and of peroxide of uranium. The analysis of it 
is attended with considerable difficulty ; but Professor H. Rose now shows 
that to the two former bodies we must add zirconia and thorina as 
important constituents of the mineral. 
Chilian Minerals. — Mr. D. Forbes has communicated some researches on 
the composition of several minerals of Chili. 1. A hydrous arseniate of 
nickel and cobalt , apparently a new species, occurs in veins in a greenstone 
rock of the Desert of Atacama. It appears to have been derived from 
chloantliite, which occurs beneath it. It is found in fibrous masses. Analysis 
shows its composition to be a bibasic arseniate of nickel and cobalt, with 
eight atoms of w'ater. It is remarkable from its being colourless, although 
containing so much of these two metals. 2. Bismuthic /Silver , a mineral 
consisting entirely of silver and bismuth, and therefore differing from 
Dana’s so-called bismuthic silver, which is a mixture of various sulphides. 
8. Sulphide of Lead and Zinc, a mineral occurring in large lumps or nodules. 
It mostly resembles galena, but is lighter and has less lustre than the 
latter. It may be considered as a compound of two atoms of sulphide of 
lead to three of sulphide of zinc. 4 Taltalite, a new mineral, has since 
1858 been found in immense quantities in the mines near Taltal, in the 
Desert of xitacama, constituting an important ore of copper. It is of a 
black or brownish-black colour, and occurs in fibrous masses. It is a 
silicate of copper, united with a silicate of alumina and iron. 5. Hayesine 
■ — Borate of Lime. — Mr. Forbes believes that his discovery of this mineral 
and of its mode of formation places beyond a doubt the fact that the com- 
pounds of boracic acid occurring so abundantly in Chili and Peru are 
due to exhalations from volcanoes. It is found in suspension in the "waters 
of hot springs, which derive their boracic acid from volcanic vapours — 
the acid acts upon the carbonate of lime contained in the water, forming 
hayesine, the carbonate acid escaping. 
Cavities in Topa~, Beryl, and Diamond . — In an interesting paper con- 
tained in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Sir David 
Brewster describes some remarkable phenomena which he has observed 
