PRECIOUS STONES. 225
hardness is 6 or 6-1/2. When found in situ it
is always in metamorphic rocks of one kind or another ; thus, in
GerÂmany it occurs at Jordansmiihl and Beichenstein in Silesia; in
Turkestan it occurs on the Yarkand Daria below Yarkand and between
there and Khotan, both in situ and as water-worn fragments in
the rivers, also further east on the northern slopes of the Kuen-Lun
(Jan Shanskii) Mountains. Dr. G-. F. Kunz records the finding of
Nephrite in situ in Siberia by members of the Russian
Geological Survey, in the district of Chara Jalga. It has also been
found in the rock in Alaska, in the South Island of New Zealand and in
various parts of Polynesia. Nephrite has also been found in the
unworked state, but not in situ, in the glacial deposits of
Northern Germany, in the district of Irkutsk in Siberia, in the
above-mentioned localities in Eastern Turkestan and in the west of the
Chinese Empire, in New Zealand and in Alaska; also on the Fraser River
in British Columbia. In Switzerland, Germany, Mexico, and New Zealand,
Nephrite was used in very remote times for battle-axes and other
weapons, and it is supposed the Chinese have worked the deposits in the
Kuen-Lun Mountains for 2,000 years, using the material in the same way
as Jadeite and other stones known to them as Yu. When used among
Western nations it is usually in the form of a ring cut from the solid
material, or for small pieces {en cabochon) for setting in brooches, etc.
Nephrite
is most likely to be confused with Jadeite, but the latter is
distinctly denser as a rule, though occasionally specimens of Jadeite
are found with a specific gravity included in the range Nephrite shows.
The value of well worked ornaments in Nephrite is high on account of
the great time
P.S.
Q
