38 
The jYctturallsts^ Companion. 
Cryolite or Kryolith. 
BY Dli. B. F. MASON, SAN LEANDRO, CAL. 
Ciyoline, or Kryolith, is usiiall}" 
found in snow-white masses, although 
sometimes its color is brown, red, and 
even black, Its names are from the 
Greek words, kruos^ ice, (to which its 
remarkable quality of melting in the 
flame of a candle alluded;) and lithosy 
a stone; hence its common name of ice- 
stone. It IS a brittle, rather soft, sub¬ 
transparent, or translucent mineral, 
with a vitreous or pearly luster. Its 
composition, by a chemical analysis, is 
found to be: aluminum, 13; sodium, 
32-8; fluorine, 54-2. It is distinguish¬ 
ed by its fusibility in the flame of a 
candle, and then heated in an open 
tube, by its giving off hydrofluoric acid, 
which etches the glass. The water 
which condenses at the upper end of 
the tube, reacts for fluorine with Brazil¬ 
wood paper; while in the forceps it 
melts easily, coloring the flame j^ellow. 
It is soluable in sulphuric acid with 
the evolution of hydrofluoric acid. On 
charcoal it fuses easily to a clear bead, 
which on cooling becomes opaque; af¬ 
ter long blowing, the sodium is absorb¬ 
ed by the charcoal, a suffocating odor 
of chlorine is given off, and a crust of 
alumina remains, which if heated with 
a solution of cobalt, gives a blue color. 
A number of years ago this mineral 
was only found in isolated pieces in the 
Ural Mountains, in Russia, and a spec¬ 
imen was worth its weight in silver, 
mostly for cabinet purposes. 
In the year 1857, the Danish Govern¬ 
ment sent a scientific expedition to its 
ice-bound possessions for the purpose 
of gathering a collection of the cloth¬ 
ing, weapons, utensils and fishing tackle 
of the Esquimaux,for exhibition in the 
Danish Museum. When this collection 
arrived in Copenhagen, a scientist dis¬ 
covered that the fishing nets were 
weighted with rare stones. He exam¬ 
ined them and found that they were 
the rare mineral, ciyolite. An expe¬ 
dition was soon formed and a mine 
opened, but the fii’st attempt to work 
the mineral failed, because chemistry 
had not yet succeeded in extracting 
the valuable properties of the mineral 
at a reasonable cost. But shortly af¬ 
ter, Prof. Thompson made a discovery 
by which cryolite became of great value 
to many manufacturers. 
The first compan}" in the United 
States to appreciate the usefulness of 
cryolite was the Penns 3 dvania Salt 
Manufacturing Company, and they 
were wise enough to enter into a con¬ 
tract which gives them a perpetual 
monopoly in America, and an absolute 
control of three-fourths of all the ciy- 
olite mined in Greenland. 
To show the importance of this min¬ 
eral, there was imported and consumed 
in the United States, in the single year 
1884, an amount worth one hundred 
and six thousand and twenty-nine dol¬ 
lars. 
The mine is situated at Evigtok, in 
West Greenland, where it constitutes 
a large vein in gneiss. The workings 
have now reached a depth of four hun¬ 
dred feet, and the cryolite taken out at 
that depth is of as good a quality as 
that found at the surface, and appar- 
entl}" of unlimited quantify. Work 
in the mine can only proceed in the 
spring months, after which the water 
of the ocean is allowed to flow into the 
mine. An ice crust ten to twelve feet 
thick soon forms,and protects the mine. 
When spring opens, an aperture is 
