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A massive mineral, greenish in color, and opal-like in appearance. It is essentially a hydrous silicate of iron.

A peculiar rounded granule of some mineral, usually enstatite or chrysolite, found imdedded more or less aboundantly in the mass of many meteoric stones, which are hence called chondrites.

A black submetallic mineral consisting of oxide of chromium and iron; -- called also chromic iron.

A comparatively rare element occurring most abundantly in the mineral chromite. Atomic weight 52.5. Symbol Cr. When isolated it is a hard, brittle, grayish white metal, fusible with difficulty. Its chief commercial importance is for its compounds, as potassium chromate, lead chromate, etc., which are brilliantly colore…

A mineral, found in crystals, of a yellow to green or brown color, and consisting of aluminia and glucina. It is very hard, and is often used as a gem.

A mineral, composed of silica, magnesia, and iron, of a yellow to green color. It is common in certain volcanic rocks; -- called also olivine and peridot. Sometimes used as a gem. The name was also early used for yellow varieties of tourmaline and topaz.

ing; not easily wrought; as, a churlish soil; the churlish and intractable nature of some minerals. Boyle.

A soft, earthy, clayey mineral, of whitish or grayish color.

ed; that (as land) to which any one intends to establish a right; as a settler's claim; a miner's claim. [U.S. & Australia]

the result of the wearing down and decomposition, in part, of rocks containing aluminous minerals, as granite. Lime, magnesia, oxide of iron, and other ingredients, are often present as impurities.

A mineral of a nearly silver-white color, composed of arsenic, sulphur, and cobalt.

The mineral black tourmaline or schorl; -- so called by the Cornish miners. Raymond.

Mineral coal charred, or depriver of its bitumen, sulphur, or other volatile matter by roasting in a kiln or oven, or by distillation, as in gas works. It is lagerly used where [Written also coak.] Gas coke, the coke formed in gas retorts, as distinguished from that made in ovens.

One engaged in the business of digging mineral coal or making charcoal, or in transporting or dealing in coal.

An earth of a deep brown color, containing more vegetable than mineral matter; an earthy variety of lignite, or brown coal.

Mercury telluride, an iron-black metallic mineral, found in Colorado.

A mineral of a black color, submetallic luster, and high specific specific gravity. It is a niobate (or columbate) of iron and manganese, containing tantalate of iron; -- first found in New England.

A rare element of the vanadium group, first found in a variety of the mineral columbite occurring in Connecticut, probably at Haddam. Atomic weight 94.2. Symbol Cb or Nb. Now more commonly called niobium.

ion, or coalescence of separate particles of matter in one body. To divide all concretes, minerals and others, into the same number of distinct substances. Boyle.

A variety of the mineral domeykite, or copper arsenide, from the Condurra mine in Cornwall, England.