50 HISTORY OF THE GEMS FOUND IN NORTH CAROLINA.
usually
showing a bright and compact interior when broken. They are sometimes
as fine in color as the Bohemian garnets, and should find a ready use
for watch-jewels and other like purposes. Some crystals have been found
weighing 20 pounds each. Although not fine enough for gems, these might
be cut into dishes or cups measuring from 3 to 6 inches across, as has
been done in India. A yen- large quantity of these garnets has been
found about 8 miles southeast of Morganton, and also near Warlick, in
Burke County. Here they have been extensively mined for abrasive use
and also near Hall's Station in Jackson County, where garnet wheels are
manufactured.
Bohemian or pyrope garnets.—This
garnet of good color, that has furnished gems, has been found in the
sands of the gold-washings of Burke, McDowell, and Alexander counties.
This species has a more blood red tint than the preceding, and is used
largely in the garnet jewelry made in Bohemia, whence the name; it is
the same also that passes under the name of Cape ruby, from South
Africa, and Arizona ruby, from the territory of that name.
Rhodolite.—This
is by far the most important variety of garnet in Xorth Carolina, and
is found nowhere else, indeed, so that it possesses peculiar interest.
Since it has been recognized and developed, it has proved to be also
the most valuable gem produced commercially in the State. The locality
is much the same as that of the Cowee rubies, in Macon County, in the
gravels of streams heading on Mason's Mountain, and on the mountain
itself at some points. When first observed it was regarded as a very
beautiful and brilliant light-colored form of almandine; but analysis
subsequently showed that it is a variety intermediate between that and
pyrope, in fact an inter-mixture of the two, in the proportion of 2/3
pyrope and 1/3 almandine.
The first mention of these Macon County garnets was apparently clue to Mr. A. M. Field, of Asheville, in 1893,2
and was made by the author in his report on the production of precious
stones for that year, and again in 1897." In the following year, a
paper was published by Mr. W.. E. Hidden and Dr. J. H. Pratt, in which
the whole subject was treated fully, the analyses described, the nature
of the stone determined, and the name of rhodolite proposed for it as a
new variety.4 This name is from the Greek word rhodon, a
rose, from the resemblance of its color to some kind of roses and
rhododendrons. The mineral shows a light shade of fine red, without the
dark aspect that belongs to most garnets, and it
