Page:Transactions of the Geological Society, 1st series, vol. 4.djvu/448



XXX. Notice concerning the Shrophire Witherite.

By ARTHUR AIKIN, Esq.

[Read 6th December, 1811.]

Witherite or native carbonate of barytes, still continues to be one of the rarer productions of the mineral kingdom. The only thoroughly ascertained locality of this substance, according to Professor Jameson, (System of Mineralogy, I. 575,) is Anglesark in the county of Lancaster, where it was first discovered by Mr. James Watt. It is here found in veins traversing the independent coal formation, and accompanied by blende, galena, calamine and heavy-spar. To this locality however may be added, on the authority of Klaproth, (Analytical Essays, I. 389,) a mine near Neuberg in Upper Stiria, where this mineral occurs in a bed of spathose iron ore.

The mine at Anglesark is, I understand, abandoned: it may therefore be a matter of some interest to the members of the Geological Society, to state that my researches during the last summer in pursuance of my mineralogical survey of Shropshire, have made me acquainted with a mine, within the bounds of that county, in which witherite occurs very abundantly.

The most hilly district of Shropshire extends from the borders of Montgomeryshire to the town of Church Stretton, having the broad valley of the Severn for its northern boundary, and stretching as far