FLUORITE with CALCITE

This long, cabinet-sized Calcite-coated Fluorite specimen from Cave-in-Rock, Illinois - Kentucky Fluorspar District is less of a long single crystal, rather an alignment of many coalesced crystals. All pale purple and translucent, with backlighting the individual crystals are given away by their consistent deeper purple outer rim along the edges of each crystal, but also by slight 'stepping' between each other. The coating of small Calcite crystals appears to be a classic stoss-side growth, whereby the crystals deposited on the upper surface of the Fluorite within a cavity as the fluids descended by gravity. All these features are typical of the Cave-in-Rock area and nicely presented in this larger specimen. Ex Arvid Pasto Collection.