Scapolite

Occurrence
Slender, prismatic, white or light greenish crystals of scapolite from Franklin, some of them 2 inches long, were seen in several collections. They came from two small finds—one in a pocket in limestone between the two legs of the deposit on Mine Hill, the other in the large cavity in limestone that yielded black garnet so abundantly on Balls Hill near the Gooseberry iron mine. Specimens from the latter locality are illustrated in plate 15, B. Excellent crystals were found in 1914 in limestone in the Fowler quarry also. Massive greenish scapolite was found in 1905 in some abundance in the cast wall of the Buckwheat open cut, which was then being quarried for limestone. It was associated with fluorite and edenite and enclosed scales of molybdenite.

A doubly terminated crystal of scapolite in limestone from Sterling Hill is in the Hancock collection.

Scapolite is an abundant constituent of the rock of basic igneous dikes in the limestone at several localities near Franklin, which were described by Nason (142). So far as known scapolite has not been found in direct association with the zinc ores.

Alteration
Under the name "algerite" Hunt (44) described is a new mineral species an altered scapolite found lit long, slender distorted prisms lit loose blocks of limestone on the hillside below what was latter the Trotter mine. The name "kembleite" has been used locally for the same substance.

Hunt's analysis showed that algerite contains water and carbon dioxide, and those by Crossley (48) and by J. D. Whitney (63) gave widely variant results, showing the substance to be undergoing alteration. The species was therefore not accepted and was placed by Dana (146) among the pinite pseudomorphs after scapolite.


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