Arseniate of Iron

This arseniate of iron is one of the richest that has been seen hitherto; and what adds much to the beauty of the specimen is, that the lighter green cubes are accumulated in groups, forming threads, lying on darker ones, all of which are very pellucid. To add to the rarity of this specimen, we find extremely fine fibres of an oxide of iron? partly encircled by a band as it were of the arsentiate, which relieves the reddish brown dusty appearance of the oxide; and this last, in return, relieves the glittering arseniate. The fibres of the oxide are so fine that it requires a high magnifier to see them; we could not discover any other than simple fibres. The top figure is of the natural size; the middle one, somewhat magnified; the lower are more magnified. The gangue is chiefly quartz, with various coloured ochres and some arsenical iron, or what has been called mispickel: see the metallic parts in the upper figure.

This is one of the many fine specimens in Mr. Rashleigh’s collection.