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CHAPTER XXII. MALACHITE.
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HERE can be little doubt that this stone was known to the Ancients, and it has been suggested that our Malachite was the Smaragdus Medicus of
Pliny. Malachite, a hydrated carbonate of copper, is found in almost
every locality which yields copper-ores, occurring principally in the
upper parts of the deposits where atmospheric influences have been at
work. The finest specimens have been obtained from the mines of the
Urals, and from the great deposits of copper-ore in South Australia.
Malachite
is occasionally found in crystals, but perfect specimens are rare. It
usually occurs in masses with rounded surfaces—mammillated, botryoidal
and reniform— which have evidently been deposited from solution in
water, much in the same way that deposits of stalagmitic marble have
been formed. Its gradual deposition in successive layers is shewn by
the concentric structure which specimens of Malachite so often display,
and owing to this structure, a slab of polished Malachite usually
exhibits a beautifully variegated pattern.
malachite:.
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