a New Mineral from Vesuvius. ISS 
Mineralogical Character. — It scratches Stilbite, Fluor-spar, 
and Apatite, but not Mesotype, and will therefore have a hard- 
ness of about 5.1 in Mohs’ scale. It belongs to the Second 
Class, and the Sixth Order, or that of Spar, and to the Genus 
!Kouphone-spar of Mohs. 
Distinctive Characters. — Comptonite is distinguished from 
Stilbite^ by its being convertible into a jelly by nitric acid, a 
property not possessed by Stilbite by the inclination of its 
resultant axes, which is 56°, whereas that of Stilbite is 41°, and 
by the form of its crystals. It is distinguished from Auvergne 
Mesotype, and from the Mesotype or Needlestone of Iceland, by 
the angles of the primitive prism, and by the position of the 
plane of the resultant axes, which in these minerals pass- 
es through, or is parallel with the axis of the prism ; where- 
as in Comptonite, it is at right angles to that axis. It is distin- 
guished from the real Nadelsiein from Faroe, (which I have 
ascertained to be a new mineral), by the angles of the primitive 
prism, and by other characters which will be pointed out in an- 
bthei* paper* It is distinguished from all the Apophyllites, by 
numerous characters, but particularly by the singularity of their 
action upon light ; and by the circumstance of the Apophyllites 
belonging to an entirely different system of crystallization, viz. 
the Pyramidal system of Mohs, whereas Comptonite belongs to 
the Prismatic system* 
Edinbuiigh, October 18. 18S0. 
Art* XXi — Observations on Bees, made by means of the 
Mirror-Hive. By the Reverend William Dunbar, Mini- 
ster of Applegarth. In a Letter to the Very Reverend Prin- 
cipal Baird^ communicated to Professor Jameson. 
Dsiar Sir, 
ISeing desirous of ascertaining the consequence of introducing 
a, stranger queen into a hive, without removing the reigning one^ 
I procured from my neighbour, the Minister of Tiindergarth, a 
small second swarm, and added it, with its queen, to the swarm 
already in the hive,. I had no doubt that one of the queens 
