mica schist (see colored plate), and often associated with phenacite, chrysoberyl, rutile, etc.
Other
localities whence emeralds are obtained are Upper Egypt (the source of
those known to the ancients); the Heubachthal in Austria; and Alexander
County, North Carolina, in our own country. The latter locality has
afforded a number of fine crystals, and work at the mines has recently
been renewed.
The
form of cutting given the emerald depends upon the shape of the rough
stone. The table cut like that of the emerald shown in the frontispiece
to this work is perhaps the most common. The step cut is also employed,
and brilliants and rose cuts are occasionally made.
Emeralds
seem to have been known and prized from the earliest times. They are
mentioned in the Bible in several places, and their use in Egypt dates
back to an unrecorded past, for they frequently appear in the ornaments
found upon mummies. Readers of Roman history will remember that the
Emperor Nero used an emerald constantly as an eye-glass, though whether
this was a real emerald may be questioned.
The
Incas, Aztecs, and other highly civilized peoples of South America were
reported to have used these gems profusely for purposes of adornment
and for votive-offerings. It was partly the desire to secure emeralds
which led Cortez and his followers, early in the sixteenth century, to
undertake the conquest of Peru. Some of the emeralds thus obtained from
the Incas by Cortez and brought to Spain were said to have been marvels
of the lapidary's art. One was carved into the form of a rose, another
that of a fish with golden eyes, and another that of a bell with a
pearl for a clapper. During the years following Cortez' conquest large
quantities of the so-called emeralds were brought to Europe. Joseph
d'Acosta, a traveler of the period, says the ship in which he returned
from America to Spain carried two chests, each of which contained one
hundred pounds' weight of fine emeralds. It is probably, however, quite
incorrect to regard the stones as true emeralds. They were more likely
jade or some other green stone to which the name emerald was applied.
The true emerald is too brittle to be easily engraved, and it is not
likely that any such large quantity as reported was ever found of this
stone. Working of the Colombian mines was begun by the Spaniards in
1558, and there has been practically no interruption in their operation
since that time.
The ancients had many superstitions regarding the emerald, one
being that it had a power to cure diseases of the eye. Engravers of gems
and other artificers were accustomed, therefore, to keep an emerald in
front of them while at work, believing it would rest their eyes to look
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