Ch. 2: Maine Pegmatites: Local Descriptions

Ch. 2: Maine Pegmatites: Local Descriptions Page of 170 Ch. 2: Maine Pegmatites: Local Descriptions Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
OXFORD COUNTY.
101
Other constituents of the pegmatite at this locality are the follow­ing, the descriptions being partly those of Kunz:
1.  Apatite occurs in the cavities as small doubly-terminated crys­tals and in the solid pegmatite as opaque vitreous-green masses weighing up to 2 pounds.
2.  Beryl occurs in large colorless to pale-green crystals embedded in the solid pegmatite. Most of them are opaque to translucent with small colorless transparent portions. Kunz reports that one band unusually rich in beryl was traced for nearly 40 feet. Some of the crystals in this band were about a yard long and over a foot across.
.3. Clevelandite in white plates is very abundant, as in most of the gem-bearing pegmatites. It occurs in particular abundance and per­fection of crystal form on the walls of the pockets.
4.  Columbite is usually associated with clevelandite, lying either on crystals of the latter in cavities or else between the plates of it. Its crystals vary in length from 1 to 10 millimeters and are not very perfect. One pocket afforded over 40 pounds of pure material, and one mass which seemed to have belonged to a single crystal group weighed over 17 pounds.
5.   Fluorite fills small cavities in the clevelandite. The masses are rarely over 10 millimeters across and the color is very deep purple. A number of very minute octahedra resembling blue topaz have been found.
6.  The pink kaolin montmorillonite occurs, according to Kunz, in masses that range in color from a very delicate pink to tints closely approximating red, filling the cavities and interstices in the cleve­landite. It also occurs in botryoidal masses resembling rhodochro-site, on crystals of clevelandite.
7.  Triplite is scattered irregularly through the solid pegmatite in masses usually under 2 pounds in weight, though one mass broken out in the blasting furnished over 100 pounds of rather pure material.
8.  Herderite, in short prisms from 1 millimeter to 1 centimeter long, occurs in the topaz-bearing pockets and has been described by Hid­den and Mackintosh a and further discussed by Dana h and Penfield."
9.  Bertrandite occurs in the pockets with herderite and topaz. It has been described by Penfield.''
10.  A single occurrence of hamlinite has been noted at this locality. The mineral formed minute rhombohedral crystals attached to herd­erite, margarodite, muscovite, and feldspar, and associated with ber-
Ch. 2: Maine Pegmatites: Local Descriptions Page of 170 Ch. 2: Maine Pegmatites: Local Descriptions
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