When a day has been clouded and dull, some may think it not worth while to attend the meeting of the Sunset Club. But they are mistaken. Who that admires a beautiful picture in black and white—a fine engraving—can fail to see the beauty of this sunset picture; this living picture in half tones, which is so superior, so much more perfect in every detail than the work of man? Nay, never miss a meeting if you can possibly be present: never fear that you will fail to find beauty there if you look for it. Let us not complain if we cannot possess works of art wrought by human brains and hands, when we often fail even to look at, much less appreciate, the daily art of Nature which is our birthright, and which perhaps we regard but lightly, because it is free to everyone with seeing eyes and beauty-loving soul. Let us rather cast off the scales that blind our eyes and hide from us the visible expression of a Creator’s love, the beauty of Nature. And our lives shall be enriched an hundred fold. Anne Wakely Jackson. QUARTZ. This is the most abundant, most durable and most indestructible of common minerals. There is scarcely a sand beach, field or mountain side upon which this mineral cannot be found in some form or other. Its abundance is due not so much to its excess in quantity in the underlying rocks as to the fact that, being harder and less easily decomposed than other minerals, it remains after they are worn away. Though so common, it appears in so great a variety of colors and different kinds of structure that a large collection of minerals _looking_ very much unlike might all be made up of Quartz. If they were all of Quartz they would have the following characteristics: Hardness, 7 (cannot be scratched with a knife blade); specific gravity, two and a half times as heavy as water; no cleavage; fracture conchoidal (shell-like); infusible before the blowpipe; insoluble in common acids. The numerous varieties of Quartz can be grouped into two classes, the pheno-crystalline (plainly crystalline) and the crypto-crystalline (obscurely crystalline). This article deals with the plainly crystalline varieties. These include, among other varieties, rock crystal, amethyst, rose quartz, smoky quartz, and sagenitic quartz. These varieties all occur in well formed crystals, and all have a vitreous luster, i. e., luster like that of glass. The differences between them are almost exclusively differences of color.