color ; and in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania,
presenting shades of yellow, blue, and green.
The most remarkable deposit of tourmalines in America,
and perhaps in the world, was found in Paris, Maine, a few
years ago. Mr. Hamlin, in his interesting account of the
discovery, says the mine, covering only a few square rods, on
the brow of a hill called Mount Mica, is one of the most
wonderful found in any country. It has yielded, from an area
of thirty square feet, nearly forty varieties, some of them being
rare and very beautiful. This depository, which seemed almost
like an Aladdin's cave, was accidentally discovered by Hamlin
and Holmes, two students, who had been searching for minerals. The broken fragments of crystals scattered about, led to
an examination of the premises, which resulted in finding a
granite ledge perforated with cavities filled with tourmalines
and other minerals. Some of the tourmaline crystals were
two and one-half inches in length and nearly two in diameter,
and of great beauty, tinted with different colors, chiefly red
and green, though some were pink, others white, blue, or yellow, and some transparent specimens were similar to the Brazilian emerald. No other single deposit has yielded so great a
diversity of colors as that of Mount Mica ; the crystals are said
to rival the South American gems in beauty, limpidity, and
brilliancy, and are nearly equal to the rubellite of Siberia.
They represent the dark green of Brazil, the light green of St.
Gothard, the pink of Elba, the light yellow of Ceylon, the
blue of Sweden, the white of Switzerland. The Hamlin collection at the New Orleans Exposition included specimens of
four different greens, besides red, pink, yellow, and white.
The fame of this natural treasury of minerals at Paris soon
became widespread, and attracted thither collectors from different countries, who carried off large quantities of the best
