Sulphate of Barytes

Stalactitical Sulphate of Barytes, as far as we know, has not been observed by any author. I have therefore introduced it as one of the curiosities that was in Mr. Day’s collection. It is from Matlock in Derbyshire. It shows a curious state of aggregation, crystallizing after solution, running and dropping in very elegant and varied forms.

The crystals sometimes line the tubes and nearly fill them in a concentric manner like the common calcareous stalactites: the tubes are often nearly empty. The outsides of the tubes are covered with somewhat globular aggregations of sharp lenticular crystals, some of which have very much the appearance of globular crystals.