fuse
on the edges, and becomes then a grayish-green enamel : borax fuses it
into a diaphanous glass ; acids have no effect upon it ; it consists of
magnesia, alumina, and silica, with some oxide of iron and water.
It
is often found under the names of lynx and water sapphire, the first of
a pale and the latter of a darkish blue color. It is found in primitive
rocks ; also, in blue clay, in copper pyrites, in quartz or felspar,
and in small detached masses ; the localities are at Baldenmays in
Bavaria, occasionally in perfect crystallizations, but usually massive
; ' it is associated with magnetic pyrites. The variety from this
locality has been called peliom, from its peculiar smoky-blue color,
from πελιος. It occurs in quartz, at Ujordlero-soak, in
Greenland ; in granite, at Cape de Gâta, in Spain ; at Arendal, in
Norway ; at Orrijervi, in Finland ; at Tuna-berg, in Sweden, &c.
Ceylon affords a transparent variety in small rolled masses of an
intense blue color. At Had-dam, Connecticut, it is associated with
garnet and anthoph-yllite in gneiss. It is occasionally employed as a
gem, and when cut exhibits its dichroism, or different colors in
different directions. The name iolite is derived from ιον, a violet, and λίθος, stone,
in allusion to its color. From its property of exhibiting different
colors according to the direction in which it was viewed, it has also
been named dichroite, from δις, double, and χρόα, color.
The
hydrous' iolite, from Sweden, of grayish-brown or dark olive-green.
color, is a very soft mineral ; hardness, 3·75 ; occurs in red granite,
accompanied by a light bluish-gray iolite.
If
the stone is perfectly pure, it is used for rings and breastpins; is
cut on a copper wheel with emery, and polished on a tin plate with
rotten-stone, and receives the form of a cabochon, in order to let it
display its proper colors, and in a cube form. Its price is not very
high ; the
