39 
It is used as a black varnish or lacquer for leather and 
metals, as engravers’ varnish, and for black sealing wax. 
The asphalt of Trinidad is softer, cannot be powdered, and 
when mixed with sand and small stones, it is used for 
paving dwelling-houses, terraces, footpaths, etc. 
The asphalt of Val de Travers, in Neufchatel, and of 
Lobsann, in the Elsass, is yet softer ; it is a peculiar bitu¬ 
men, and occurs, generally mixed with sand and clay, in 
the upper tertiary formations. It is employed in Germany 
and France for the same purposes as above mentioned. 
Retinite or resmite , is a yellowish-brown bitumen, of 
conchoidal resino-lustrous fracture, which is essentially dis¬ 
tinguished from amber by its smaller degree of solidity, 
and its turpentine odour when heated. It occurs in the 
brown coal at Halle, at Meiersdorff in Lower Austria, and 
especially in Moravia; also at Bovey in Devonshire, and 
Cape Sable in Maryland, U. S. 
Eloterite , also known as elastic bitumen or mineral 
caoutchouc, is a translucent, brownish-green, or dark-brown 
elastic resin, similar to softened caoutchouc, readily in¬ 
flammable, burning with a clear flame, of 09—1’23 specific 
gravity, soluble in naphtha and ether, and it forms a solid 
carbo-hydrogen, according to the formula C H 2 . In the 
atmosphere it becomes more solid and harder, it also loses 
its elasticity, and is then always found to contain a small 
quantity of oxygen, and sometimes nitrogen. It is found 
plentifully in the lead mines of Derbyshire, and sometimes 
at St. Bernard’s Well, near Edinburgh. 
Fossil wax, and various fats and oils, are also found 
in the mineral kingdom, especially in the neighbourhood 
of beds of brown coal, or as the products of distillation of 
stone and brown coals. Ozokerite is such a natural fossil 
wax, which is found at Slanick in Moldavia, and at Urpeth 
Colliery, near Hewcastle-on-Tyne, and has the composition 
of elaterite. Scheererite , jichtelite, hartite, and piancite , are 
tallowy, paraffine-like carbo-hydrogen compounds of this 
kind. Mineral naphtha is a transparent, yellowish-white 
mineral oil, which swims on water, is extremely fluid, 
readily inflammable, and burns with a smoky flame. It 
occurs principally in Persia, and on the shores of the 
Caspian. It is used for dissolving India-rubber, and for 
preserving sodium and potassium, which have no action on 
it, as it contains no oxygen. Petroleum, and mineral tar are 
thick fluid natural oils of this kind, containing more or 
less bitumen. They possess, for the most part, a repul¬ 
sive tarry odour, are only partially soluble in pure alcohol, 
dry up in the atmosphere, and leave a black-brown pitchy 
mass, and on this account are used as varnishes for the 
manufacture of cement and mortar. The principal localities 
are Lobsann and Blattelbroun in the Elsass, at the Tegern- 
see in Bavaria, and blaring in the Tyrol. The holy fire 
of the Parsees and fire-worshippers is nothing but naphtha 
vapours, which, having been set fire to, keep perpetually 
burning. Such places are enclosed for temples, and priests 
are appointed for maintaining the flame. 
Carbons of the Mineral Kingdom—(Anthracite 
and Brown-Coal). 
The carbon diffused throughout the mineral kingdom 
occurs in very varied forms. The purest carbon of octa¬ 
hedral form, and perfect transparency, is the diamond, as 
we have already seen, when treating of the precious 
stones. It, too, may be perfectly consumed by burning, 
leaving as a residue nothing but carbonic acid. 
Graphite (black lead), is a carbon with a metallic 
lustre, which crystallises in hexagonal tables (Plate XII., 
Fig. 5), and double pyramids, but it occurs more frequently 
in scaly-foliated, or fine scaly masses, iron black, of a 
metallic lustre, giving off a grey colour on paper, soft and 
flexible. It has a greasy fetel, a hardness of 1*0—2*0, and 
a specific gravity of 1*8—2T. The constitution is pure 
carbon; sometimes, however, it is rendered impure by a 
little iron, lime, and alumina. Before the blow-pipe it 
burns with difficulty without melting, and is insoluble in 
the flux, also in acids, and is found principally in primary 
schistous rocks, sometimes also imbedded in lime and 
granite, in compact masses; in its purest condition at 
Borrowdale in Cumberland, where, however, it has been 
almost exhausted; also in Spain, at Passau in Bohemia, 
and North America. It occurs, moreover, at Bannerdale at 
Keswick, at New Cumnock, Ayrshire, near Huntly in 
Aberdeenshire, in the island of Mull, and other places in 
Scotland, and near Kilkenny in Ireland. It is principally 
used in the manufacture of lead-pencils, and is therefore a 
very valuable mineral; also for crucibles, for blackening 
cast-iron, as a coating to galvanoplastic models made from 
stearine, gutta-percha and the like; for strops, for lubri¬ 
cating parts of machinery, etc.; it is also employed in 
medicine. 
Fig. 8.—Anthracite, Non-Bituminous Coal. 
This mineral forms black, compact masses, sometimes 
coarse slaty pieces or tables of irregular, flat, conchoidal 
fracture, and of more or less brilliant metallic lustre, some¬ 
times with a bluish play of colour (Plate XII., Fig. 8), 
and is distinguished from the stone-coals by greater hard¬ 
ness (=2‘0—2*5), and weight (= 1*8), by the difficulty 
of burning it, and especially because, when heated in close 
vessels, it neither yields olefiant gas nor oily products of 
distillation. It is a mineral coal, with an amount of carbon 
reaching as high as 96 per cent., so that, after incinera¬ 
tion, an ash is left containing silica, alumina, and oxide of 
iron, but free from alkalis. Real anthracite is found in 
layers or beds, sometimes of remarkable thickness, espe¬ 
cially in the greywacke and clay schists, as at Ebersdorf 
in Voigtland, and in Rhode Island, U.S., where the spe¬ 
cimen figured (8), was obtained. It is mixed with 
other coals, being difficult of combustion by itself. It is 
used as fuel, and equals the best coals, with which it pre¬ 
sents many points of similarity, the structure being ex¬ 
cepted. The organic origin of anthracite is the less cer¬ 
tain, since it generally occurs without being accompanied 
by vegetable remains. 
Figs. 9 and 10. —Common Coal, Coal. 
Quite black, more rarely brownish-black, perfectly 
opaque, irregularly formed masses, lustre resinous, friable, 
of more or less distinct slaty structure, not unfrequently 
occurring in rhomboidal fragments, of conchoidal to flat, 
pitchy-lustrous fracture, frequently capable of giving off its 
black colour; hardness = 2 , 0—2 - 5, specific gravity = 1T5— 
D6Q. Combustible and readily inflammable, with a clear 
smoking flame, and development of a peculiar bituminous 
