White Garnet

The Rev. John Harriman is the only person from whom I have received this substance, and it has not, to my knowledge, been spoken of by any author. Indeed its diminutive size might almost elude our search, even with the help of the lens. By that aid, however, we can discern in it the form common to Garnet, viz. the rhomboidal dodecaëdron. We must own that the trial of the species was chiefly strengthened by the aid of the blowpipe, under which it resembles the common Garnet, tab. 43 and 44 of this work. These are found in irregular parcels, the crystals being from about the size of a small pin’s head to extreme minuteness, sometimes pretty clear and bright, at other times yellowish and of a dirty hue. They have generally well defined sharp facets, which seem to vary but little. They run in lines at the intervals of the divisions in the matrix, which attracted notice by the curious appearance of its yellowish, greenish, light and dark reddish, and brown colours. These Garnets are sometimes mixed among a rough mass of nearly their own nature, which seems to incorporate with some Quartz. In fusion by the blowpipe they run into a black enamel without addition. The matrix is chiefly Carbonate of Lime, and a siliceous substance resembling dull reddish Jasper.