NEW ELEMENTARY WORK ON MINERALOGY.

Mr. Godon, of Philadelphia, proposes publishing by subscription, "a Treatise on Mineralogy adapted to the present State of Science, including important applications to the Arts and Manufactures." This work, will consist of two volumes 8vo. with one volume of plates, in 4to.

TANTALIUM.

A translation of Dr. Wollaston's paper on the Identity of Columbium and Tantalium, as inserted in our last, has appeared in the 165th number of the Journal des Mines, published at Paris: to which is subjoined the following note of the translator. "M. Berzelius, in a letter to M. Vauquelin, which is inserted in the 61st volume of the Annales de Chemie, announces, that Mr. Gahn had found, by means of the blow-pipe, that tantalium was nothing more than tin, combined with an earth, the nature of which had not yet been ascertained.

BENJAMIN D. PERKINS.

In the death of this gentleman mineralogy has lost one of its most zealous promoters in this country. Mr. Perkins, early in life, had imbibed a taste for this useful branch of science, which he pursued with the greatest ardour. When in Europe, he formed a cabinet of well-characterized specimens, which is now the property of Yale College, his alma mater, and serves to illustrate the excellent lectures delivered in that highly respectable institution.

CABINET OF MINERALS, AT YALE COllege.

We are happy to inform the public, that the celebrated collection of minerals, formerly belonging to Mr. Gigot d'Orcy, of Paris, has been deposited by Col. Gibbs, the present proprietor, at Yale College, New-Haven. The students of mineralogy, at that seminary will now enjoy every advantage in pursuing that study, from this collection, and from the zeal and talents of Professor Silliman.

THE AMERICAN

MINERALOGICAL JOURNAL.

NUMBER III.

XXII. Mineralogical Notice respecting ZIRCON, from Trenton, New-Jersey, by Mr. SOLOMON W. CONRAD.

HITHERTO the Zircon or Jargon has been esteemed one of the rarer productions of the Mineral Kingdom, and little respecting its natural repository has as yet been ascertained.

In the island of Ceylon, where it was first discovered, and to which it appeared almost exclusively to belong, it is found, we are told, in the sands of a river, accompanied with rubies, and other crystallized gems. Lately, however, we are informed by various authorities, it has been met with near Frederickswarn, in Norway, and according to Klaproth, *for the first time with its gangue, which is a coarsegrained stony mass, consisting of a reddish feldspar, with black basaltic hornblende, in which the zircon is sparingly

imbedded in transparent light-brown crystals, belonging to the octahedral form.

As I recently observed this interesting mineral, the existence of which in our country is not generally known, some account of it may perhaps merit a place in the Mineralogical Journal.

In a cluster of primitive rocks which stand on the margin of the Delaware, near Trenton, in New-Jersey, there are masses observed, of a light-green feldspar, and blueish white quartz, in which the Zircon occurs imbedded.

The rocks are composed of black mica, quartz, and feldspar, with garnets interspersed, and appear to partake of the nature of Gneiss. They are part of that primitive range, which passing under the Delaware in a south west direction, forms the falls in that river.

The colour of the crystals is a deep brownish red; their form a rectangular four-sided prism, accuminated by four planes, which are set on the lateral planes, with the solid angles bevelled, and the lateral edges of the prism truncated; and in some instances, the edges formed by the meeting of the planes of accumination, are also truncated. Sometimes the bevelling planes stretch so far towards the apex of the crystal that the accuminating planes are scarcely visible. The crystals are small, rarely exceeding the fourth of an inch in length; they are smooth and shining, and nearly semi-transparent. In their other characters they correspond with the description given in the books of mineralogy.