Early this year Mr. Arthur Russell brought me a small specimen of ore from Mill Close mine, Wensley, Derbyshire, for identification. An X-ray powder photograph p1. xxviii, fig. 3, showed that the mineral has the pyrite structure with unit-cell edge a 5.49 Å., and a chemical analysis of a small sample of specific gravity 4·82, yielded Ni 16·69, Fe 29·30, S 53.40% (see table 1). These data identified the specimen as bravoite, a rare mineral new to the British Isles. At a later date Professor W. G. Fearnsides interested himself in our preliminary work and kindly provided me with further specimens of bravoite and accessory minerals from the Mill Close mine. These also have been investigated.

The characteristics of a phlogopite and its weathering product, vermiculite, have been studied by X-ray, infra-red, electron-microscope, and chemical methods. Inclusions within these minerals have been identified as thin films rich in iron oxide (which impart a schiller effect), spinel (which may exist in a preferred orientation), and serpentine. The orientation relationship between the fresh mica and its weathering product has been established by single-crystal methods. The mechanism of transformation from a 1-layer to a 2-layer polytype is discussed.

Apreliminary account of this fine mass, weighing 2520 lb., of meteoric iron was given in 1910 by L. Laybourne Smith, who at that time was Registrar of the South Australian School of Mines and Industries in Adelaide; but the promised detailed description with chemical analysis never appeared. Except for a small piece cut off one corner (upper left-hand corner in fig. 1) the mass is preserved intact in the Museum of that Institution, and none of the material appears to have been distributed to other museums. Casts of the mass were, however, made for the South Australian Museum in Adelaide, and one of them was presented to the British Museum in 1917 (B.M. 1917,360), where in the meteorite collection it is a very striking object (fig. 1).

Recently, at the suggestion of Mr. R. Bedford of the Kyancutta Museum, the Council of the South Australian School of Mines has generously presented to the British Museum a piece of this meteoric iron, together with the milling cuttings, with the request that the description of it should be completed.

The orientation of the boundaries of out-of-step domains in ‘transitional’ anorthite has been deduced from the direction of elongation of the diffuse X-ray reflections h + h + l = 2n + 1 in selected precession photographs. The reflections are elongated normal to which is in the zone and contains the body-centring vector (a+b−c)/2. The structure is presumed to be perfect parallel to . Atoms in essentially identical, primitive anorthite-like domains are related across the out-of-step domain boundaries by body-centring vectors. Increasing diffuseness of the h + k + l = 2n + 1 reflections indicates progressively smaller domains (more frequent domain boundaries), and when thesereflections disappear, the structure has become body-centred on the average.

Zinckenite was first described in 1826 by G. Rose, who determined it to be an orthorhombic mineral. The crystals were thought to be seldom single, but to occur in nearly hexagonal forms as a result of twinning in some fashion similar to that found in aragonite. The presence of longitudinal striations on the lateral faces was taken as further evidence that the crystals were twinned. The composition was given by H. Rose as PbSb2S4 or PbS.Sb2S3. The original specimens which were described came from the antimony mine of Woffsberg in the Harz.

In 1922 S. G. Gordon described a new lead sulfantimonite from Oruro, Bolivia, which he named keeleyite. This mineral he presumed to he orthorhombic, although no measurable crystals were found, and the formula was given as Pb2Sb6S11 or 2PbS.3Sb2S3.

In that part of the Gangpur State immediately to the north of the Bengal-Nagpur Railway, between Biara and Garpos, lies a tract of dolomite- and limestone-bearing country which has been referred, on lithological grounds, to the Cuddapah (? Algoukian or Palaeozoic) formation. From this area, all the dolomite and most of the limestone requirements of the Bengal iron and steel industry are at present derived, and the close proximity of the enormous haematite ore reserves of Singhbhum indicates a still greater economic importance for these materials in the future.

The alkali feldspars in the Ardara pluton are microcline- and orthoclase-microperthites. Their compositions have been determined by the 20 X-ray method, both before and after homogenization. The bulk compositions are very rich in potassium as a result of postmagmatic recrystallization of the alkali feldspar. There is no significant variation in either the bulk composition or the composition of the potassic phase in different parts of the intrusion. The structural state of the feldspars has been studied by measurement of 2V and obliquity of the potassic phases, and the reciprocal lattice angles α* and γ* of the potassic and sodic phases in selected crystals. Most of the specimens contain near-maximum microcline, but there is a decrease in the obliquity of the potassic phase at the eastern end of the intrusion. This can be related to the subsequent intrusion of the Main Donegal Granite.

This is a mere fragment of gneissic rocks which is imbedded between the granite of Roeness and the igneous rock which lies to the east : but so different are these entrapped rocks from the ordinary gneiss of Shetland, and so violent a twist do they seem to have received athwart of their normal strike, that the enquiry rises-whence did this fragment come ?

A spectator looking west from the top of Ornsfield, gazes seaward upon a mere heap of ruins ; while, looking landward, he also sees little else,-so riven and twisted are the rocks by the intrusion of dykes of porphyry, and so shattered and toppling from the invasion of the sea.

There occurs frequently in coal a white carbonate which, when it is referred to at all by scientific writers on coal, is usually described as calcium carbonate. It occurs as a rule in the form of thin layers infilling the joint-cracks which lie normal to the bedding-planes, though at times it may be seen infilling other divisional planes which may cut across the bedding obliquely.

Sixteen samples of crocidolite asbestos from weathered zones in mines in Cape Province, Transvaal, Western Australia, and Bolivia have been studied by thermal analysis methods and their characteristics are compared with those of fresh crocidolite from Koegas-Westerberg given by Hodgson, Freeman, and Taylor (1965). New chemical analyses of these samples are reported.

The effect of natural weathering on crocidolite tends to a removal of ¼ of the OH groups and an adjustment of the Fe2+/Fe3+ ratio to unity, but there are only minor changes in the physical characteristics of the fibre. The d.t.a. pattern of decomposition is not affected by weathering, but the endothermic peak corresponding to final decomposition is moved to higher temperatures as the Mg content of crocidolite increases. Mg-blocking of this decomposition is considered to be more important than Mg-blocking of the oxidation reaction at 400–450° C, suggested by Addison et al. (1962).

D.t.a. and other evidence shows that the Transvaal crocidolite contains intergrown amosite fibres, and suggests that the Bolivian crocidolite is admixed with anthophyllite.

In a general account of the properties of torbernite given by the present author in this magazine in 1916 it was shown that the transition from torbernite to the first dehydrationproduct, known as meta-torbernite I (meta-kupferuranit), was dependent on the temperature and the vapour-pressure, and that the boundary, of the stability area lay only a little outside the range of ordinary atmospheric conditions; the transition-point of torbernite in contact With water was determined as 75° C.

Cristobalite is found as the first product in the conversion of quartz following a high-temperature heating, and it constitutes a large percentage of the crystalline material in most manufactured silica bricks. It is present also in fireclay products, the amount being dependent upon the nature of the raw material and the conditions of firing. In the majority of these products the cristobalite is only poorly developed, i.e. the crystals are only perfect over distances of the order of about 1 × 10-6 cm. This value is derived from the diffuseness of the high-order reflections on the X-ray powder photograph. On the other hand, the crystals of cristobalite are well developed in the hot face of an open hearth silica roof-brick.

The Bratteggdalen granogabbro, a relict mass in the Caledonian amphibolites of Vestspitsbergen, shows a series of amphibole development reflecting its thermal history. A brown Ti-rich hornblende occurs as a late magmatic mantling of pyroxene. Low-grade metamorphism (greenschist facies) was accompanied by the development of actinolite from pyroxene; subsequent amphibolite facies metamorphism saw the development of an alkali-rich, blue-green hornblende. The chemical changes in the amphiboles are a succinct illustration of those found in progressive regional metamorphism.

Early in 1947 an unusual mineral deposit was discovered at Mavuzi in the Tete district of Mozambique. The discovery was made by native boys searching for corundum on behalf of Senhor Mario Canuto de Carvalho, a Goanese prospector who had for some years been associated with primitive gold and corundum operations on the north bank of the Zambesi. The dominant ore-mineral in the new deposit was superficially similar to the pegmatitic samarskite found in small quantities in the mica-mining districts of the Alto Ligonha in eastern Mozambique; and when exposure of the mineral to a photographic plate confirmed that it was radioactive, the identification as samarskite was accepted both by local prospectors and by most of the field geologists who later worked on the deposits. The presence of uranium in the ore was first proven in a chemical analysis by the Southern Rhodesian Geological Survey.

Some years ago a few small grains of an unknown mineral were separated by F. H. Stewart from well cuttings from the Permian lower evaporite bed of the Eskdale no. 2 borehole, sunk by the D'Arcy Exploration Company near Aislaby, north Yorkshire. The mineral (not then identified) was mentioned in an account of the mineralogy of this evaporite bed (Stewart, 1949, p. 626). Flame tests suggested that boron and strontium were present, and this was confirmed by Dr. R. L. Mitchell of the Macaulay Institute for Soil Research in Aberdeen, who, by spectrographic work, found that these were the main constituents, and that very much smaller quantities of Ca, Mg, Ba, Na, and K were present.

Two compounds, one an apatite and the other a perovskite, have been synthesized by sintering mixtures containing CaO and Cr2O3, and CaO, Cr2O3, and Fe2O3 respectively. The apatite formed by partial oxidation of the Cr2O3 and subsequent pick-up of moisture from the atmosphere, to give Ca5(CrO4)3OH. The perov-skite formed as a non-stoicheiometric compound Ca4(Fe,Cr)4O11 by partial oxidation of the Cr2O3 during firing. Lattice parameters and interplanar spacings are given for the two structures.

Parahopeite, Zn3(PO4)2.4H2O, is the triclinic dimorph of hopeite. The crystal structure of parahopeite has been determined to be similar to phosphophyllite, Zn2Fe(PO4)2.4H2O and to hopeite in that one of the two zinc atoms is six-coordinated and the other is four-coordinated. Parahopeite differs from the other two minerals though because one of the P-O tetrahedral oxygen atoms is bonded to both the six- and the four-coordinated cations. That is, all four tetrahedral oxygen atoms are bonded to the four-coordinated zinc in parahopeite, whereas in phosphophyllite and hopeite only three of these oxygen atoms are so bonded.