CASSITERIDES (from the Gr. κασσἰτερος, tin, i.e. “Tin-islands”), in ancient geography the name of islands regarded as being situated somewhere near the west coasts of Europe. Herodotus (430 b.c.) had dimly heard of them. Later writers, Posidonius, Diodorus, Strabo and others, call them smallish islands off (Strabo says, some way off) the north-west coast of Spain, which contained tin mines, or, as Strabo says, tin and lead mines—though a passage in Diodorus derives the name rather from their nearness to the tin districts of north-west Spain. While geographical knowledge of the west was still scanty and the secrets of the tin-trade were still successfully guarded by the seamen of Gades and others who dealt in the metal, the Greeks knew only that tin came to them by sea from the far west, and the idea of tin-producing islands easily arose. Later, when the west was better explored, it was found that tin actually came from two regions, north-west Spain and Cornwall. Neither of these could be called “small islands” or described as off the north-west coast of Spain, and so the Cassiterides were not identified with either by the Greek and Roman geographers. Instead, they became a third, ill-understood source of tin, conceived of as distinct from Spain or Britain. Modern writers have perpetuated the error that the Cassiterides were definite spots, and have made many attempts to identify them. Small islands off the coast of north-west Spain, the headlands of that same coast, the Scillies, Cornwall, the British Isles as a whole, have all in turn been suggested. But none suits the conditions. Neither the Spanish islands nor the Scillies contain tin, at least in serious quantities. Neither Britain nor Spain can be called “small islands off the north-west of Spain.” It seems most probable, therefore, that the name Cassiterides represents the first vague knowledge of the Greeks that tin was found overseas somewhere in or off western Europe.

Authorities.—Herodotus iii. 115; Diodorus v. 21, 22, 38; Strabo ii. 5, iii. 2, 5, v. 11; Pliny, Nat. Hist, iv. 119, vii. 197, xxxiv. 156-158, are the chief references in ancient literature. T.R. Holmes, Ancient Britain (1907), appendix, identifies the Cassiterides with the British Isles.

(F. J. H.)

CASSITERITE (from the Gr. κασσἰτερος, tin), the mineralogical name for tin-stone, the common ore of tin. It consists of tin dioxide, or stannic oxide (SnO2), and crystallizes in the tetragonal system. The crystals are usually 4-sided or 8-sided prisms, striated vertically, and terminated by pyramids (fig. 1). Twins, with characteristic re-entrant angles, such as figs. 2 and 3, are common. Certain slender prismatic crystals, with an acute 8-sided pyramid, are known in Cornwall as “sparable tin,” in allusion to their resemblance to sparable nails, whilst very slender crystals are termed needle-tin. Occasionally the mineral occurs in fibrous forms, which pass under the name of “wood-tin,” and these, though not unknown in the matrix, are generally found as rolled pebbles. By the disintegration of tin-bearing rocks and vein-stones, the cassiterite passes into the beds of streams as rolled fragments and grains, or even sand, and is then known as stream tin or alluvial tin. This detrital tin-ore was probably used as a source of the metal before the primitive miners had learnt to attack the solid tin-bearing rocks.

Fig. 1.

Pure cassiterite may be colourless, or white, as seen in certain specimens from the Malay Peninsula; but usually the mineral is brown or even black, the colour being referred to the presence of ferric oxide or other impurity. Occasionally the tin-stone is red. In microscopic sections the colour is often seen to be disposed in zones, following the contour of the crystal. A brown variety, with rather resinous lustre, is termed “rosin tin.” The usual lustre of crystals of cassiterite is remarkably splendent, even adamantine. The mineral has a high refractive index, and strong bi-refringence. Certain transparent yellow and brown specimens, cut as gem-stones, exhibit considerable brilliancy. The hardness of cassiterite is 6.5, so that it cannot be scratched with a knife, and is nearly as hard as quartz. Its specific gravity is about 7; and in consequence of this high density, the tin-stone is readily separated during the process of dressing, from all the associated minerals, except wolframite, which may, however, be removed by magnetic separators.

Fig. 2.Fig. 3.

Cassiterite usually occurs as veins or impregnations in granitic rocks, and is especially associated with the quartz-mica rock called greisen. The usual associates of the tin-stone are quartz, tourmaline, apatite, topaz, beryl, fluorite, lithia-mica, wolframite, chalcopyrite, &c. The presence of fluorine in many of these minerals has led to the opinion that the tin has been derived in many cases from an acid or granitic magma by the action of fluorine-bearing vapours, and that cassiterite may have been formed by the interaction of tin fluoride and water vapour. Cassiterite occurs as a pseudomorph after orthoclase felspar in some of the altered granite of Cornwall, and it has occasionally been found as a cementing material in certain brecciated lodes.