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GARNET, ZIRCON, RUTILE AND OCTAHEDRITE. 53
Alexander
County, see Plate XIV. These have furnished some of the finest cut
black rutile, which more closely approaches the black diamond in
appearance than any other gem. Some of the lighter colored ones furnish
gems strongly resembling common garnet. Beautiful long crysÂtals at
times transparent red, ranging from the thickness of a hair to 1/4 and
in some instances 2/3 inch across, and from 1 inch to 6 inches in
length, often doubly terminated and very brilliant, have been found at
Taylors-ville, Stony Point, and elsewhere in that vicinity. A very
marked form of rutile is that in which these slender red crystals
penetrate transparent quartz, both colorless and smoky, forming the
beautiful combination called sagenite, or by the French, "fleches
d'amour" (love's arrows) (PL V). This material is found of remarkably
fine quality at several points in North Carolina, and is described in
this report under Quartz Inclusions.
Dr.
Joseph Hyde Pratt has recently reported the occurrence of beauÂtifully
terminated rutile crystals from near Mebane, Orange County. The
crystals are up to 1-1/4 inches long and 1/2 broad and are imbedded in
pyrophyllite.
OCTAHEDRITE.
Octahedrite is
a rare mineral, identical with rutile in composition, but entirely
different in the form of its crystals. It is described by W. E. Hidden'
as occurring in thin tabular, glassy crystals of a pale-green color and
very brilliant up to 1/3 of an inch in diameter, in the gold sands of
Brindletown Creek and elsewhere in Burke and the adjoining counties,
especially on the northern slope of Pilot Mountain. These might afford
small gems that would compare favorably with the beautiful blue
crystals from Brazil, which are so brilliant as to have been mistaken
for diamonds. Cassiterite, the oxide of tin, has been found in
considerable quantities at King's Mountain. Fine specimens may be cut
like rutile, but this place has not yielded a single gem, or been
worked as yet with commercial success for tin.
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