The identity of cryptomorphite and ginorite

Abstract

Henry How, professor of chemistry and natural history in the University of King's College, Windsor, Nova Scotia, described in 1861 the occurrence of a new calcium sodium borate, which he named cryptomorphite from the microscopic size of the crystals. The mineral was found in narrow seams of mirabilite (glauber-salt) at the junction of anhydrite and gypsum in Clinton quarry, Windsor, where he had also discovered ulexite in 1857. The cryptomorphite occurred as inclusions about the size of a small bean, between the gypsum and crystals of mirabilite.