20 HISTORY OF THE GEMS FOUND IN NORTH CAROLINA.
the
discovery. Thus far, however, no very important results have been
obtained, although some of the stones are unquestionably fine, but most
of them are small (see PL I).
They
are unusually interesting and beautiful as crystals, but many of them
are imperfect. It is claimed, however, that the percentage of imperfect
stones is no greater than it is in the rubies from Burma.
Unfortunately, many of the crystals also have inclusions which mar
their elegance as gems. The exact locality of this very interesting
occurrence is a tract of some 10 square miles lying between Mason's
Branch and the Caler Pork of Cowee Creek, affluents of the Little
Tennessee Biver some 6 miles below Pranklin, Macon County. Many
interesting minerals are found in this area, and there are mica mines
there, and mines where the abundant garnet has been worked for use as
an abrasive. The beautiful rhodolite garnets, found in close
association with the ruby crystals in the gravel and saprolite, will be
described separately under garnet.
The
discovery and development of the " Cowee rubies" were first described
in the volumes of the IT. S. Geological Survey (Mineral Besources of
the United States), in the writer's annual reports on the Production of
Precious Stones, from 1893 to 1896, year by year, and further in that
of 1899.21 Also in 1899, there appeared a full account by Prof. J. W. Judd, Mr. W. E. Hidden, and Dr. J. H. Pratt22;
and the latter gentleman has since published further accounts in his
annual reports, and in his special bulletins on corundum in the United
States.2"
The
first published notice in the author's report for 1893, above
mentioned, was of the finding of ruby corundum, in small hexagonal
crystals, flat or tabular, in an alluvial deposit on the Beeves farm,
not far from Pranklin, associated with beautiful garnets. The next
year's report described the locality as consisting of the valley of a
stream, for several miles, in which the rubies were distributed through
a gravel bed from 2 to 10 feet thick, overlain by several feet of
surface deposit,—a mode of occurrence very similar to that in the Mogok
Valley in Burma, where the finest rubies are obtained.
The
attention of the author was first called to these rubies by the late
Mr. James D. Yerrington, of New York, who had specimens, both cut and
uncut, that he had received from Mr. Beeves, of Athens, Georgia, who
owned the farm on which they had been found. Two cut gems of 1/2 a carat each, were set in a flag scarf-pin shown in the Tiffany jewelry
