Gems of North Carolina Intro

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	INTRODUCTION. XV special account of North Carolina gems, that have been found, as above noted, chiefly as incidents in the course of mining enterprises. The diamonds of North Carolina, although small in size and few in number, are undoubtedly authentic. The localities have been visited and the discoveries verified by good mineralogists. Whether their occurrence will always be as sporadic as these, or whether others will be found, time only can tell. Rubies, as fine in color as those of Burma, but generally small or containing imperfections, have lately been found in the Cowee Valley, in Macon County; considerable mining for them has been done, but the financial outcome is still somewhat problematical. Emeralds, remarkable as crystals, but rarely transparent enough for gems, were obtained in Alexander County, some years ago; but a greater quantity has been sold from the more recent Crabtree Mountain discovery, in Mitchell County, where the emerald is translucent to transparent, in a white granitic rock, and the whole is cut together as a matrix material— the quartz and feldspar contrasting charmingly with the emerald green. Aquamarines, which for beauty of colors have never been rivalled in any country of the world, have been found in some profusion, and many gems have been cut weighing from 1 to 30 carats, of the most beautiful sea-blue color. Beryls, both sea-green and yellow, than which none richer have ever been found, are also obtained in Mitchell County and elsewhere. Mention should also be made of the peculiar " lithia emerald," or hid-denite, found with the large emerald crystals above noted, at Stony Point, Alexander County. This gem-stone was discovered in 1879 by J. Adlai D. Stephenson, then sent by William E. Hidden to Dr. J. Lawrence Smith of Louisville, who named it hiddenite. The garnets of the gold washings are well known; but it remained for the Cowee Valley to produce a new variety of garnet which has received a distinct name, rhodolite, and has brought of late greater financial returns, probably, than any other North Carolina gem. The amethysts from various localities equal those found in any country of the globe; while smoky quartz, wonderful as crystals, that have commanded the attention and study of some of the greatest living crvstallographers, has been obtained in Alexander and adjoining counties. These specimens have frequently been fine enough to cut into gems. But quartz in its choicest form,—rock crystal—has been found in Ashe County in such magnificent^- masses that one of the finest art objects shown at the Paris Exposition of 1900, was made from rock crystal obtained in this county in 1888 by the author as was the cover of the " Adams gold vase " presented to the same museum. These now form parts of the Matthiessen gift and Edward D. Adams gift to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York, where they are two of the finest objects in the entire museum.

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