Topaz from Cornwall, with an account of its localities

Topaz, so common an accessory in tin lodes in all parts of the world, has hitherto been looked upon as comparatively rare in Cornwall. When massive, or even in the form of small, well-developed crystals, it is a mineral easily overlooked, or apt cursorily to be mistakcn for quartz. The presence of topaz as a microscopic accessory in granite, greisen, and rarely elvans, from most of the Cornish masses, has been determined by Dr. J. S. Flett in the course of the work of the Geological Survey; while the late Mr. J. H. Collins was responsible for the record of other interesting localities. In the present notes I have collected all the available information respecting its mode of occurrence and localities ; and have added several new ones, at some of which the mineral occurs in considerable mass, thus affording evidence that topaz is in Cornwall, as in the case of other countries, a comparatively common associate of cassiterite and wolframite, both in granite and sedimentary rocks.