Note 42 — Chapter V

The transparent varieties of sulphate of lime are distinguished by the name Selenite; and the fine massive varieties are called Alabaster. Gypsum forms very extensive beds in secondary countries, and is found in tertiary deposits; occasionally, in primitive rocks; it is also a product of volcanoes. The finest foreign specimens are found in the salt mines of Bex, in Switzerland; at Hall, in the Tyrol; in the sulphur-mines of Sicily; and in the gypsum formation near Ocana, in Spain. In England, the clay of Shotover Hill, near Oxford, yields the largest crystals.—See Dana’s Mineralogy, second edition, p. 241.