cality,
all of which are remarkable for their size and clearness, were very
fully described by Whitman Cross and William F. Hillebrand, under title
of "Minerals from the Neighborhood of Pike's Peak, Col."1
One of these, a fragment of a crystal, was found near Florissant with
amazon-stone; it is remarkable on account of the probable size of the
original crystal, which when complete must have been nearly a foot in
diameter. It was clear in parts and had a decided greenish tinge. The
specific gravity of a fragment was 3.578 and its chemical composition
was entirely normal. Another locality of importance in the vicinity is
Devil's Head Mountain in the Colorado range, some thirty miles north of
Pike's Peak. The pocket in which the topaz was found at this place is
of irregular shape, being about 50 feet long, from 2 to 15 feet wide,
and averaging 4 feet in depth. Owing to the disintegration of the rock
at the surface, many of the crystals had been carried in the debris to
a considerable distance down the mountain side, and were badly worn and
broken. The topaz is found here in isolated and usually loose crystals,
surrounded by distorted quartz crystals of smoky reddish shades,
frequently the exact color of the topaz. The principal color of the
latter was reddish, although wine-yellow, milky-blue, and colorless
crystals were found." These Colorado localities have proved quite
valuable. Within a year after their discovery it was estimated that
over 100 crystals had been sold for nearly $1,000, at prices varying
from 50 cents to $100 each.' A topaz crystal weighing 18 1/2| ounces
(587 grams) was found at Cheyenne Mountain^ Col., during 1886 ; but,
although very perfect, it had little gem value. There is in the United
States National Museum in Washington a cinnamon-tinted cut stone from
Pike's Peak weighing 15 carats, that is superior in beauty to the
brilliant white topazes from Brazil. Several of the sherry-colored
Colorado crystals have been cut in stones, two of the larger ones
weighing 125 to 193 carats each. (See Colored Plate No. 3.) During
1882, crystals from Harndon Hill, in the vicinity of Stoneham, Me.,
were determined by the writer to be topazes, and further research
1 Am. J. Sci. III., Vol. 24, p. 282.
8
Contributions to the Mineralogy of the Rocky Mountains, p. 70, et seq.,
Bulletin No. 20 of the United States Geological Survey, Washington,
1885.
3 Mineral Resources of the United States, 1886, p. 596.
