420 PRECIOUS STONES IN THE UNITED STATES..
debris excavated
in former workings are very extensive, and on the slopes and sides of
immense piles of rubbish are growing cedars and pines of great age.
Along the line of the railroad turquoise is sold to some extent by the
Indians of the San Domingo Pueblo, New Mexico. The stones are ground
into round or heart-shaped ornaments, which are drilled with a crude
form of bow-drill. The drilling point is made either of a chip of
quartz or agate, and the wheel, to give it velocity, is sometimes made
as in this illustration from the bottom of a bowl. The price of these
turquoises is now very low. One choice string, made up of many hundreds
of these stones, was valued as the equivalent of a pony. The contents
of a mouth, where the Indians usually carry them, can be obtained for
from twenty-five to fifty cents. Turquoise was used by the ancient
Mexicans to incrust human skulls, and to inlay mosaics and ornaments
made up of obsidian, and also, together with iron pyrites, for making
mosaic inlays and incrustations, forming many rinch and curious effects.
The
rich green Amazon-stone from Pike's Peak, Colorado, enjoys a worldwide
reputation for the magnificence of its rich green crystals, although it
is very sparingly used in gem form. Beautiful sun stone and moon-stone
have been found in Chester County, Pennsylvania, and also in Amelia
County, Virginia. Immense quantities of obsidian (volcanic glass) occur
in Colorado, Nevada, and California, and a ledge over half a mile long
crops out at Obsidian Cliffs, Yellowstone Park. Brown and black
obsidian, when mottled, is called mountain mahogany. Beautiful
labradorite has been found in the rocks and bowlders of a stream in
Essex County, New York, which is accordingly named "Opalescent River."
It is extensively quarried for ornamental purposes, and some exquisite
pieces are cut as gems. Beautiful blue crystals of transparent kyanite,
as fine as any of these precious stones from St Gothard, have been
lately brought to light in Mitchell County, North Carolina.
The
magnificent American rubles (pure titanic acid), in their variety of
forms, lead the world. Magnificent large crystals, of which some have
been used as gems, have been found at Graves Mountain, Georgia; and at
several localities in Alexander County, principally near Stony Point,
North Carolina. This rutile, when cut, more closely resembles the black
diamond in color and lustre than any known gem possessing all the
desirable features of a rich mourning gem. Some of the crystals are
almost blood red by transmitted light. Sodalite, deep blue and azure
blue, resembling lapis lazuli, has been discovered at South Litchfield,
Maine, in masses over one inch square, and has been cut into gems.
Rhodonite, a silicate of manganese, which is extensively used in Russia
for jewelry, was obtained at Cummington, Massachusetts, in fine large
pieces of, rich flesh red color, occasionally beautifully streaked with
black oxide of manganese, and equal in every respect to the finest from
Russia. Wil-lemite, (silicate of zinc), a mineral occurring in any
considerable quantities only at Franklin, New Jersey, is there mined as
an ore. A number of gems (about ten in all), some of them eight carats
in weight, have been cut from this material. The color is a rich canary
yellow, with a vitreous lustre.
Chlorastrolite
(a silicate of alumina, lime and iron), occurs on the shores of Isle
Royal, in Lake Superior, in small, rounded water-worn pebbles, which
fall from the trap-rock as it disintegrates and is extensively sold as
a gem in that region. It is of a peculiar light grass-green color, and
is finely radiated or stellated in structure. It is one of the most
pleasing of our purely American gems. The largest, from Mr. M. T.
Lynde's cabinet, is represented above.
Lodestone,
a magnetic iron ore, although not worn as a gem at present, for
centuries has served this purpose, especially when gems were used for
the powers the_y were supposed to possess. The strongest in the world
is found in large quantities at Magnet Cove, Arkansas, and at present,
hundreds of pounds are annually sold by druggists, especially to the
Southern colored people, for various purposes, principally as a
preventive for rheumatism, but also as a conjuring stone. Only in July,
1887, a case was tried in Macon, Georgia, where
