These
were entrusted to Governor Lincoln of Maine to take to New Haven, and
all but one were, at this time, lost. It is believed that these
tourmalines are at present in the Imperial Mineralogical Cabinet at
Vienna, since there were some fine specimens of tourmalines purchased
with the collection of the well-known antiquarian, Vandervull, in 1830.
These were recognized as being from Paris, Me., by Baron Lederer, the
Austrian Consul in New York City, who was familiar with the crystals,
having made collections in that locality. In 1825, Prof. Charles U.
Shepard visited the locality, and after considerable work obtained some
of the best crystals ever found, which are now in the Shepard
Collection at Amherst College, having escaped the disastrous fire of
1882. Prof. John W. Webster, of Harvard College, found a large red
crystal and some beautiful grass-green ones. In 1865 the locality was
supposed to be exhausted, but excavations which have been made there
since, from time to time, through the perseverance of Dr. Augustus C.
Hamlin, have brought to light many fine crystals. In 1881 the Mount
Mica Tin and Mica Company began operations, with Doctor Hamlin as
president, and work has been carried on at intervals since. Some
hundreds of tourmalines are the result of this mining, among them a
blue indicohte crystal 9 inches long, somewhat shattered by blasting.
(See Colored Plate No. 4.) It is light-blue at one end, shading
gradually into dark-blue and deep blue-black. This would have been the
finest crystal known, and would have furnished several hundred carats
of fine stones, had it not been so broken. It is now in the State
Museum at Albany, Ν. Υ. The next summer's work brought to light
material that cut into two of the finest gems, of a grass-green hue,
weighing about 30 carats, which surpass in beauty anything hitherto
found. (See Colored Plate No. 4.) The gems and crystals obtained by
this company have been valued at over $5,000, and the value of all that
have been taken from this locality, and sold at the highest rate asked
for them as native gems, probably amounts to $50,000. The crystals of
green tourmaline, inclosing red crystals of rubellite, found at Mount
Mica, when properly cut across the prism form objects of great beauty.
The centers have often furnished magnificent
