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Ch. 5: Garnets - Essonite, Spessartite, Almandite, Pyrope, Ouvarovite, & Schorlomite

Ch. 5: Garnets - Essonite, Spessartite, Almandite, Pyrope, Ouvarovite, & Schorlomite Page of 364 Ch. 5: Garnets - Essonite, Spessartite, Almandite, Pyrope, Ouvarovite, & Schorlomite Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
82                             GEMS AND PRECIOUS STONES IN THE
tion, but usually showing a bright and very 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 of the crystals which have been found, weighing 20 pounds each, although not fine enough for gems, might be cut into dishes or cups measuring from 3 to 6 inches across. A very large quantity of these garnets has been found about eight miles southeast of Morgantown, and also near Warlick, in Burke County, N. C, and in Rabun County, Ga. Many of them are transparent, varying in color from the purple almandine to pyrope red. Tons of these have been crushed to make " emery " and the sand-paper called garnet paper. The peculiar play of color observed in the North Carolina garnets is often due to the inclusions. In those secured in Rabun County, Ga., at times nearly one-quarter of the entire specimen is taken up by fluid cavities containing acicular crystals of rutile. Quanti­ties of fine purple almandine garnets, which are found in the gravel of the placer mines near Lewiston, Idaho, in rolled and pitted grains from 1/16 to 1 inch across, would cut into good gems or jewels for watches. Hoffmann mentions good small crystals from Black Canon, Colorado River, Nev. Fine small almandine garnets are also found in the trachyte of White Pine County, Nev. At Acworth, Grafton, and Hanover, N. H., garnets of gem value have often been found. In Essex County, N. Y., many tons of common garnets are mined annually to be ground into abrasive materials. Many small pieces would furnish clear garnets, and occasionally of fine color. The feldspar quarry at Avondale, Pa., has furnished some of the finest known crystals of common garnet; one of them, perhaps the finest specimen of this mineral in crystal form, measuring 2-1/2 inches across, imbedded in a mass of quartzite, is of a rich purplish-red color, with high natural polish and remarkably sharp angles. It is in the cabinet of Mr. Bement. At Ruby Mountain, three miles from Salida, Chaffee County, Col., is a remarkable deposit of alman-dite-garnet crystals in a bed of green chlorite. These crystals vary in weight from 1 ounce to 3 or 4 pounds each, and occasionally 10 or 12 pounds. Two very perfect crystals, weigh­ing respectively 14 and 14 1/2 pounds, were obtained from
Ch. 5: Garnets - Essonite, Spessartite, Almandite, Pyrope, Ouvarovite, & Schorlomite Page of 364 Ch. 5: Garnets - Essonite, Spessartite, Almandite, Pyrope, Ouvarovite, & Schorlomite
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