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DESCRIPTIVE MINERALOGY. 
ORDER XI. SILVER. 
1. Native Silver. 2. Vitreous Silver. 
NATIVE SILVER. 
Argent Natif. Haiiy and Beudant. — Native Silver. Cleaveland, Phillips, Thomson and Shepard. — Hexahedral 
Silver. Jameson. — Hexaedrisches Silber. Mohs. 
Description. Colour silver-white, but usually more or less tarnished externally. Streak 
shining. It occurs regularly crystallized; also massive, disseminated, capillary, branching 
and reticulated. The primary form is thought to be a cube, but it is also found in the form 
of a regular octahedron. Cleavage none. Fracture hackly. Lustre metallic. Opaque. 
Flexible, ductile and malleable. Hardness from 2.5 to 3.0. Specific gravity 10.74. Fusi¬ 
ble by the blowpipe into a globule, which is not altered by continuing the heat, although on 
cooling it exhibits faces of the cube, the octahedron and dodecahedron. It is soluble in nitric 
acid, and the solution gives a white precipitate on the addition of common salt, which, on 
exposure to the light, assumes a purple colour. 
Native silver is sometimes associated with gold,' when it is known by the name of Aurife¬ 
rous Native Silver. A variety of this gave Klaproth, silver 34.00, gold 64.00; but these 
proportions are subject to great variation. 
Geological Situation. Native silver generally occurs in veins of calcareous spar or 
quartz, traversing gneiss, slate, and other primitive rocks, occasionally also in selenite and 
clay. The most remarkable localities are the mines of Konsberg in Norway, which formerly 
afforded magnificent specimens ; and those of Peru and Mexico in South America. 
LOCALITIES. 
Cleaveland enumerates several localities of native silver in the northern States. Among 
these is one at Sing-Sing in Westchester county, New-York, first noticed by Col. Gibbs; 
another in New-Jersey ; and still another, at Huntington in Connecticut. 
The occurrence of native silver in this State, although doubted, has been confirmed by 
Dr. Torrey, who informs us, that in 1825, Mr. F. Cozzens obtained a specimen from the 
mine about a mile south of the Sing-Sing prison.* This mine was wrought for silver, during 
the American revolution, but probably with little success. In 1827, a company was formed 
for the purpose of working it. The old shaft was cleared out, and an adit or level commenced. 
A small quantity of ore, principally galena, was obtained, and the work was then abandoned. 
Native silver has recently been found at King’s mine in Davidson county, North Carolinat ; 
* Annals of the Lyceum of Natural History of New-York. IV. 76. f Prof. J. C. Booth. American Journal of Science. XLI. 348- 
