Chapter XVII: Part I: Description of the Ore

Colour, dark brown, almost black; brittle, powder a lighter shade of brown than the mineral; hard, scratches glass, scintillates with steel, with a red spark; a degree of polish produced, where the steel strikes, and when the steel is impressed upon it.

Structure compact, in some places slightly porous; lustre, generally dull, sometimes glimmering, and almost resinous.

Crystals octahedral. Specific gravity of three massive pieces, 5.7, 6. and 6.44 mean, 6.05 nearly; probably that of the crystals would be higher.

Infusible by the blow-pipe even with borax, and does not by strong ignition impart any colour to it or to potash; not magnetic, even in fine powder, nor after being heated red hot on charcoal, and in contact with burning grease.

Many specimens decrepitate violently under the blow-pipe. When heated on coals in pieces of considerable size, they often explode with a smart report, and are thrown in fragments sometimes several yards from the fire.

Gangue quartz; accompanying minerals in the same vein, native bismuth, native silver, galena, iron and copper pyrites, much magnetic pyrites, blende, &c.

_Geological relations._ The country is primitive, and the immediate rock which forms the walls of the vein is said to be gneiss; (we have not seen it.)

Locality, town of Huntington, parish of New Stratford, county of Fairfield, 20 miles west from New-Haven, Connecticut.

_Remark._ Native bismuth in small quantities, has been for several years obtained from this mine, but the shaft has been sunk only about ten feet.