This occurrence of barytes is somewhat remarkable and interesting from several aspects :—The peculiar conditions under which it seems to have been deposited, the limited quantity, and the perfection and richness of the crystallographic development.

It was found some two years ago in one of the shale pits of the Young's Paraffin oil Company, and my friend Mr. J. S. Thomson, to whom I am indebted for two of the four or five existing specimens (of which one, I am happy to say, has been deposited in the Museum of Edinburgh), was so kind as to procure for me from the Mining Engineer of the Company a sketch of the Geological Strata of the neighbourhood, in which the position of the beds containing the crystals is indicated (Plate II.).