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XXI
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Gems That Are Not Stones, and Gems That Are Ultra Rare
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hat has
gone before ends the tale of the great gems, but it is not the end of
the whole story by any means, for the fascinating lore of gems is
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endless.
I
have already mentioned that there are substances which, although they
have furnished abundant gem material to many races in all eûmes from
time immemorial, are yet not classed as stones by mineralogists. Pearls
and coral are the most obvious examples. There is another almost as
outstanding—amber. Amber (or Sea Stone), a name derived from the Arabic
anbar, is a translucent fossil resin varying in colour from
light yellow to reddish brown. Much of it comes from the southern
shores of the Baltic, but the best is from Sicily. Outside Europe there
is amber to be found in South China, Burma and many other places.
To the ancients this substance was known by the name Electrum (Gr. elektron), and the modern word electricity
derives from it, because it was quite early noticed that
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