New
discoveries are constantly being added. A humble example is the
Kunzite, for instance, which takes its name from its discoverer, the
late Dr. Kunz. This has only been added to the list of gem stones
within the last few decades, and although it is but a pink variety of
quartz, it proves that the day has not yet dawned when the last new
gem-stone will be discovered.
Remember in this connection the apposite quotation from Charles Darwin's classic Naturalist's Voyage on H.M.S. "Beagle":
"When
in this neighbourhood I several times heard of the Sierra de las
Cuentas, a hill distant many miles to the northward. I was assured that
vast numbers of little round stones, of various colours, each with a
cylindrical small hole, are found there. Formerly the Indians used to
collect them, for the purpose of making necklaces and bracelets—a
taste, I may observe, which is common to all savage nations, as well as
to the most polished. I did not know what to understand from this
story, but upon menÂtioning it at the Cape of Good Hope to Dr. Andrew
Smith, he told me that he recollected finding on the south-eastern
coast of Africa, about one hundred miles to the eastward of St. John's
River, some quartz crystals with their edges blunted from attrition,
and mixed with gravel on the sea beach. Each crystal was about five
lines in diameter, and from an inch to an inch and a half in length.
Many of them had a small canal extending from one extremity to the
other, perfectly cylindrical and of a size that readily admitted a
coarse thread or a piece of fine catgut. Their
