AITENMX. 
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V.^ OXYGEN COMPOUNDS. 
1. Oxides. 
38. Cuprite. 
Cuprite or the red oxide of copper oocurs in some ot the copper mines 
near the surface. It is rarely found in small crystals at Cullen’s Mine 
■and upon native copper at the Union Company Copper Mine, in Cabar- 
rus county. It has also been observed at.Clegg’s Mine, Chatham county, 
at Silver Hill, at the Harris Mine, in Person county, in Caldwell county, 
and upon the gossan of the WaryluG Mine, Jackson county. At the Mc- 
Ginn Mine, in Mecklenburg county, and several of the Guilford county 
■■copper mines, cuprite in aeicular and capillary crystals (so-called chaico- 
tritchite) was formerly found in beautiful specimens. 
39. Mel aconite. 
It is found occasionally as a black coating or a powder associated with 
cuprite at the McGinn Mine, and with zincblende, etc., sparingly at Sil- 
ver Hill. 
JO. Corundum. 
Several varieties of this mineral have been found in^Nortli Carolina. 
It has lately been discovered near Franklin*, Macon county, where it 
occurs in the most beautiful varieties and in very large masses. Some 
are red and semi-transparent, in small fragments even "transparent, and 
form a fair ruby, other specimens of gray and reddish corundum have 
disseminated through the mass the most beautifully colored azure blue 
sapphire. Unfortunately the particles of the red and the blue are too 
small to have any value as gems. The greater portion is found in gran- 
ular or cleavable masses, also in small crystals. A large mass of dark 
blue corundum weighing nearly one hundred pounds, was found in the 
spring of 1847 three miles below Marshall, in Madison county, General 
Clingman’s attention having been called to it, he searched for more and 
obtained in the summer of ISIS a second piece of about half the size. 
It has lately been found in Jackson county* and in Yancey,* and Bun- 
combe,* in small red and white grains with gold in Rutherford, Mc- 
Dowell and Burke counties. A blneish variety, sometimes in crystals, 
partly altered into margarite, occurs at Crowder’s* and Clubb Mourn 
