Cinnabar

Cinnabar, an ore of mercury, from which almost all the mercury of commerce is obtained. Chemically it is a sulphide of mercury containing 86.2 parts of mercury and 13.8 of sulphur. It occurs both crystallised and massive, not frequently disseminated. Its crystals are six-sided prisms. It varies from perfectly opaque to almost transparent; has an adamantine, almost metallic lustre, and a carmine colour, with a bright scarlet streak. Its specific gravity is 8 to 8.2. Hepatic Cinnabar, so called from its liver-brown colour, is a variety containing a little carbon. Cinnabar sometimes occurs in primitive rocks, but more frequently in those of the coal formation. The cinnabar mines of Almaden, in Spain, have been worked for about 2300 years, and have been surpassed in productiveness by those of New Almaden in California. Cinnabar mines exist also in Idria, Germany, Hungary, Peru, China, and Japan. Cinnabar is used as a pigment under the name of Vermillion.