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British Mineralogy
Carbonate of Lead
- Class 3. Metals.
- Order 1. Homogeneous.
- Gen. 13. Lead.
- Spec. 2. Carbonate.
- Div. 1. Crystallized.
- Spec. Char. Combined with carbonic acid.
- Syn.
- White lead ore. Kirw. v. 2. 203. Jameson.
- Weisses bleierz. Emmerl. v. 2. 388.
- Mine de plomb blanche. De Lisle, v. 3. 380.
- Plomb carbonaté. Haüy, v. 3. 475.
The specimen here represented would, very naturally, be taken for one of quartz, which it much resembles; and perhaps it might be passed over by casual observation as such. It came from the lead hills near Glasgow, and is very valuable. It is figured of the natural size, and has part of a large hexaëdral column very distinct, with many eighteen-sided crystals, either like the outline in the middle at the right hand, or like the lower figure at the right hand, with the column interrupted as it were in from its formation, giving them the appearance of the buttresses often used in Gothic architecture, and adding many faces to the sides of the crystal, as well as giving additional angles to the faces of the pyramid. They vary much; one is nearly like the left hand bottom figure with 13 faces, having a pyramid at one end only.
