In a paper communicated to this Society in March, 1903, it was shown that antimonite is fairly transparent to radiations of long wave-length and that its behaviour between crossed nicols is consistent with orthorhombic symmetry. At the same time it was pointed out that it would be of interest to determine the wave-lengths of the radiations transmitted and the principal indices of refraction of antimonlte for these radiations. On undertaking this investigation it was soon found that antimonite was quite sufficiently transparent to the rays at the extreme red end of the visible spectrum to enable visual observations to, be made, and in a verbal communication to the Society on March 22, 1904, it was stated that the indices of refraction for red light were 4.129 for rays vibrating parallel to the axis Z and 3.873 for rays vibrating parallel to the axis X.

An examination of available chemical analyses shows that the anthophyllite and cummingtonite series of amphibole minerals are not isodimorphous. Whilst the anthophyllites are truly lime-free amphiboles, small amounts of calcium are essential to stabilize the monoclinic lattice of cummingtonites, which should be regarded as lime-poor amphiboles, analogous to the lime-poor pyroxenes. The existence of synthetic clino-anthophyllites is considered.

In the year 1888 I gave before the Mineralogical Society an account of the forms and optical characters of some minute crystals of kaolinite from Anglesey. At that time I was unable to ascertain whether the mineral was optically positive or negative, and it was stated that the axial angle 2V would approximate to 90°. Subsequently, by the aid of oil-immersion lenses and condensers of high angular aperture (numerical aperture=1.25), it was found that the mineral is optically positive and that the acute bisectrix is normal to the clinopinacoid (the obtuse negative bisectrix emerging through the basal plane). The optic axial angle in air was determined with an eyepiece micrometer to be 2E = 121°, with a possible error of one or two degrees, due to the small size of the crystals and the consequent weak interference-figures.

As the preliminary examination of the Makariwa stone had already indicated to Professor Ulrich the presence of mineral constituents having the physical characters of olivine, enstatite, glass, a substance resembling glass, nickel-iron, troilite, magnetite, hydrous oxide of iron, and possibly chromite, the quantitative chemical anslysis presented obvious difficulties, among which may be specially mentioned the fact that one chemical element (iron) enters into the composition of each of the above fine-grained and closely intermingled constituents. This chemical examination I was invited to undertake by Professor J. W. Judd, F.R.S., through whom the two fragments of the stone sent to this country by Professor Ulrich have been generously presented to the British Museum.

Riebeckite was first described by Sauer in 1888. The type-mineral occurs in granite from Socotra collected by Dr. E. Riebeck.

In the same year Harker identified the peculiar blue hornblende occurring in the quartz-porphyry of Mynydd Mawr with the mineral described by Sauer, and in the following year two fresh localities were given for this mineral by Le Verrier and Lacroix. The last mentioned observer has also shown that croeldolite must be referred to the same group of hornblendes.

The object of this communication is to place on record the occurrence of riebeckite in the so-called syenite of Ailsa Craig, the small island which stands at the entrance to the Firth of Clyde.

When in 1870 Nordenskjöld had made the discovery at Blaafjeld (Ovifak) on the Isle of Disco of the remarkable large iron blocks, there soon, as will be remembered, arose a whole literature on the occurrence and origin of this iron. Although the Danish naturalists had, from the first raised a series of objections against the theory of the meteoric origin of these iron-blocks, the problem of their existence could not be satisfactorily solved without careful geological investigations having been first made into the nature of the whole of the Greenland basalt-formation. Such investigations having been made by Mr. K. J. V. Steenstrup, I was directed by the Danish Commission for the Geological and Geographical Survey of Greenland to make a chemical examination of the materials collected.

During the last twelve years I have communicated to this Society, often in collaboration with Dr. G. T. Prior, several papers descriptive of Bolivian minerals. These papers have dealt primarily with the species augelite, andorite, argyrodite, stannite, and chaleostibite, though many others have been examined and in some cases incidentally mentioned. The latter, as being of lesser general interest, or as not having led to sufficiently important results for separate publication, are now collected together in the present notes.

Magnesio-arfvedsonite, the CFe3+-dominant analogue of eckermannite, has been found in a sample of “szechenyite” in the mineral collection of the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH H35024). It comes from the northern part of the Jade Mine Tract near Hpakan, Kachin State, Myanmar. Associated minerals are kosmochlor–jadeite solid-solution pyroxene and clinochlore. The ideal formula of magnesio-arfvedsonite is ANaBNa2C(Mg4Fe3+)TSi8O22W(OH)2, and the empirical formula derived from electron microprobe analysis and single-crystal structure refinement for the sample of this work is A(Na0.96K0.04)Σ=1.00B(Na1.57Ca0.40Fe0.022+Mn0.01)Σ=2.00C(Mg4.26Fe0.192+Fe0.413+Al0.11Ti0.034+)Σ=5.00T(Si7.99Al0.01)Σ=8.00O22W[F0.02(OH)1.98]Σ=2.00. The unit-cell dimensions are a = 9.867(1), b = 17.928(2), c = 5.284(1) Å, β = 103.80(2)°, V = 907.7 (2) Å3, Z = 2. Magnesio-arfvedsonite is biaxial (–), with α = 1.624, β = 1.636, γ = 1.637, all ± 0.002 and 2Vobs = 36(1)°, 2Vcalc = 32°. The ten strongest reflections in the X-ray powder pattern [d values (in Å), I, (hkl)] are: 2.708, 100, (151); 3.399, 68, (131); 3.144, 63, (310); 2.526, 60, (202); 8.451, 46, (110); 3.273, 39, (240); 2.167, 37, (261); 2.582, 34, (061); 2.970, 34, (221); 2.326, 33, [(251) (421)].

Beusite-(Ca), ideally Ca${\rm Mn}_{\rm 2}^{2 +} $(PO4)2, is a new graftonite-group mineral from the Yellowknife pegmatite field, Northwest Territories, Canada. It occurs in a beryl–columbite–phosphate rare-element pegmatite where it is commonly intergrown with triphylite–lithiophilite or sarcopside, and may form by exsolution from a high-temperature (Li,Ca)-rich graftonite-like parent phase. It occurs as pale-brown lamellae 0.1–1.5 mm wide in triphylite, and is pale brown with a vitreous lustre and a very pale-brown streak. It is brittle, has a Mohs hardness of 5, and the calculated density is 3.610 g/cm3. Beusite-(Ca) is colourless in plane-polarized light, and is biaxial (+) with α = 1.685(2), β = 1.688(2), γ = 1.700(5), and the optic axial angle is 46.0(5)°. It is non-pleochroic with X || b; Y ˄ a = 40.3° in β obtuse; Z ˄ a = 49.7° in β acute. Beusite-(Ca) is monoclinic, has space group P21/c, a = 8.799(2), b = 11.724(2), c = 6.170(1) Å, β = 99.23(3)°, V = 628.3(1) Å3 and Z = 4. Chemical analysis by electron microprobe gave P2O5 41.63, FeO 19.43, MnO 23.63, CaO 15.45, sum 100.14 wt.%. The empirical formula was normalized on the basis of 8 anions pfu: (Ca0.94Fe0.92Mn1.13)Σ2.99(PO4)2.00. The crystal structure was refined to an R1 index of 1.55%. Beusite-(Ca) is a member of the graftonite group with Ca completely ordered at the [8]-coordinated M(1) site.

Introduction.-There are many old records of the occurrence of chondrodite in the British Isles. Greg and Lettsom mentioned Co. Donegal in Ireland and near Loch Ness in Scotland. J.H. Collins gave Wheal Druid, Redruth, and also Scotland and Ireland. The mineral is included in a list of those associated with the kyanite of Glen Urquhart, Loch Ness, Inverness-shire, given by T. Wallace. Though reference to the Loch Ness locality is made by Dana in the 6th edition of the 'System' (1892, p. 540), the existence of chondrodite at Glen Urquhart, the only likely locality near Loch Ness, had been queried by M. F. Heddle so early as 1879. Heddle failed to find chondrodite at this locality; he gave the name xantholite to a yellowish serpentinous substance that he suggested had been hitherto mistaken for chondrodite.

Reyerite is found in close association with gyrolite in the metamorphic aureole of the volcanic plug of 'S Airde Beinn, northern Mull, and has apparently been formed by metamorphism of the gyrolite. The gyrolite, with a composition close to Ca16Si24O60(OH)3.14H2O, closely approaches trigonal symmetry with a 9·76±0·02 Å and c 3 × 22·26±0·1 Å; biaxial with a small 2V and α 1·537, β 1·547, γ 1·549. The reyerite is trigonal with a 9·76±0·02 Å, c 19·10±0·04 Å and space group Pω 1·568 and ε 1·563, and the unit cell contains about 14 atoms of Ca, 24 of Si (with some substitution by 4(OH)−), and 14H2O as (OH)− and H2O.

The dissolution rates of natural well-crystallized variscite (AlPO4.2H2O) were measured from the evolution of aqueous Al and P concentrations in closed and mixed-flow through reactors at 25°C and from 1.5 to 9 pH. Measured dissolution rates decrease with increasing pH from 5.05x10-16 mol/cm2/s at pH = 1.51 to 4.92x10-17 mol/cm2/s at pH = 5.89 and then increase with increasing pH to 1.64x10-17 mol/cm2/s at pH = 8.99. Estimates of the time required to equilibrate a mildly acidic, initially Al- and P-free solution with variscite based on measured dissolution rates and solubility products suggests it takes no more than several weeks to equilibrate this mineral with soil pore fluids. This result suggests that variscite can buffer aqueous phosphate concentrations in a significant number of near surface environments.

The Neoproterozoic, epidote-bearing Mons Claudianus Batholith (MCB), Egypt, consists of tonalite-trondhjemite-granodiorite (TTG) lithologies, containing variable contents of quartz, feldspars, amphiboles, biotite, and magmatic epidote, with accessory titanite, zircon, allanite, apatite, opaque magnetite and ilmenite. Plagioclase varies from An49 to An19, and K-feldspars possess near end-member compositions (Or97 to Or91). Amphiboles are calcic (Ca = 1.88–1.92 atoms per formula unit (apfu)), Al-rich (average AlT = 1.84 apfu), having an average Fe/(Fe + Mg) ratio of 0.50, and are edenite, ferro-edenite and ferropargasite. The Al-in-Hb barometer produced an average crystallization pressure of 5.5 kbar, consistent with the presence of magmatic epidote; the association epidote – Al-rich-Hb suggests mesozonal crustal levels, and thus a possible average rate of regional uplift for the Nubian Shield would have been in the order of 0.03 mm/yr. Calculated temperatures (using the Hb-Plag geothermometer) range from 729 to 754°C (average 747°C). The calculated P / T values of epidote-bearing MCB rocks fall within the experimentally-determined P-T range of stability of magmatic epidote with fO2 buffered from NNO to HM. Biotites in the MCB are moderately Mg-rich (Fe/(Fe + Mg) = 0.42 to 0.50), and are type 'C'-biotite, typical of calcalkaline orogenic suites, which are distinct from types 'A' and 'P' biotites occurring in anorogenic alkaline, and peraluminous lithologies, respectively. The minor secondary chlorite phases, with their Fe/(Fe + Mg) ratios of 0.37–0.52, are pycnochlorite and ripidolites, and belong to group 'c' chlorites. Minerals of the MCB reflect a petrogenetic history involving a wet, subsolvus, typically orogenic magmatic system. Results of this study could have wide implications for mineralogical characterization, level of emplacement and evolution of magmatic systems of TTG suites occurring in other orogenic belts.

A re-examination of the mineral scolecite has shown that the previously published monoclinic (pseudo-orthorhombic) unit cell is face-centred and that the Hermann-Mauguin spacegroup symbol has been incorrectly assigned. The reduced monoclinic cell yields a 9·85 Å, b 18·98 Å, c 6·52 Å, β 110° 61; space group Aa. New indexed powder data are included.

Anorthosite country rocks near the fissure vents of an andesitic resurgent caldera contain coexisting crystalline plagioclase, pseudomorphous plagioclase glass, and anomalously dense, massive plagioclase glass. Glass pseudomorphous after labradorite (An 53) has the composition of oligoclase (An 17). Large masses of dense plagioclase glass have compositions near An 53, but relict crystalline plagioclase within them has compositions near An 80. Devitrification products of this glass have potassium-rich compositions. These compositions are compatible with partial thermal melting in a high-temperature, moderate-pressure pulse. Such a pulse might be asscciated with a confined chemical explosion.

Six natural crystals from the Sludyanka crystalline complex belonging to the eskolaite (Cr2O3)–karelianite (V2O3)–hematite (Fe2O3) solid solution were studied by means of X-ray diffraction and electron microprobe. The Fe3+-poor samples show a general increase in a and c cell parameters with increasing mean cationic radius (MCR), consistent with that shown by the synthetic crystals along the eskolaite–karelianite join. The Fe3+-richer sample deviates significantly from the behaviour shown by the Fe3+-poor ones, similar to synthetic and natural hematites; with increasing MCR, the a and c cell parameters increase linearly along the eskolaite-karelianite join. However, for the samples rich in Fe3+, from karelianite to hematite, a shows a slightly steeper slope whereas the c parameter decreases strongly. The octahedral distortion increases slightly as a function of MCR along the eskolaite-karelianite join, whereas it increases markedly for Fe3+-rich samples. The evolution of the octahedral edges and of the octahedral distortions as a function of MCR are responsible for the behaviour of the unit-cell parameters along the eskolaite-karelianite-hematite join.