The
preparation of the report on the History of the Gems Found in North
Carolina was turned over to Dr. George Frederick Kunz of New York as
the recognized authority on gems. He has had access to all the
information relating to gems and gem minerals on file in the office of
the Survey, and has also drawn freely from the various publications by
himself and others relating to the gems of the State. In his
introduction, Dr. Kunz calls attention to the fact that the production
of gems in the State has been largely incidental to the mining and
production of some other mineral and that there have been but few
localities that have been developed solely for gems. At the present
time, however, there are several companies operating in North Carolina
simply for gem minerals, the two more important companies being the
United States Euby Company and the American Gem and Pearl Company.
The
report is freely illustrated and many of the colored illustrations are
of gems in the Morgan-Tiffany and Morgan-Bement collections at the
American Museum of Natural History of New York City.
Chapter
I gives a brief historical sketch of gem mining in the State, but
detailed accounts are given in many instances under the head of the
individual mineral.
The
various.gem minerals are described in the next five chapters. The
localities are also given and reference is made to the commercial value
of the gem material found.
This
report does not pretend to take up a detailed account of the geological
occurrences of the gem minerals, or a study of their chemical and
physical characteristics, as these will be discussed in a later
publication. It has been published especially for distribution at the
Jamestown Exposition.
Joseph Hyde Pratt,
State Geologist.
