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.
Part II. A variety of the Ore.
General characters as above, but on some parts, there is seen a whitish, or yellowish, or sometimes darkish metallic substance; it is in thin plates, like the leaf metals, and sometimes reticulated, and graphic in its disposition; it is soft and easily cut with the knife. In the specimens examined, it was so much blended with the other ore, and so trifling in quantity, that it was not possible to separate it mechanically, so as to examine it separately.