On Idocrase and other Minerals recently found near Zermatt

Extract

Some Zermatt Guides (Joseph Taugwalder and his brother) made, on a recent excursion up one of the mountains (Pollux ?) in the neighbourhood, the discovery of some very interesting crystals of idocrase and red garnet.

The idocrase crystals are of a dark sherry eolour, and are developed in simple forms, the prism-planes m{110}, a{100}, and the base c{001}, being well developed. The edges [cm] are truncated by narrow planes u{111}, and at the corners small planes i{312} are sometimes found. The prism planes are deeply striated, and at the same time the c plane shows more or less coarse squares, which sometimes seem to belong to independent crystals. The sides of the square are parallel to the a {100} faces. The crystals have, therefore, much the character of a bundle of thin pyramidal crystals united together in parallel positions.