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

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	UNITED STATES, CANADA AND MEXICO	83

	this locality. They were simple dodecahedrons in form, and were altered to chlorite superficially to the depth of 1/10 of an inch. Inside they are very compact, and often show two or three distinct zones of color, but are not transparent, hence not of gem value. From the fact that they occur in so soft a matrix, the crystals literally fall out of it when it is broken, and hence are generally perfect. At least 5 tons of these crystals have been sold to collectors and tourists for cabinets, for use as paper-weights and ornaments. They are compact enough to make them valuable for watch jewelry or for ornamental dishes. At Russell, Mass., a vein of garnet, very dark in color, and called there black garnet (not melonite), was opened about 1885, and many fine crystals were obtained and exchanged for minerals, or sold as specimens, to the value of over $1,000. The colophonite from Millsborough, N. Y., although of a beautifully rich, iridescent color, has never been utilized, except as a substitute for emery, owing to the small size of the grains and the friability of the large masses. At Franklin, Sussex County, N. J., immense crystals of the different varieties, melonite, polyadelphite, colophonite, etc., have been found, but rarely in crystals transparent enough to afford a gem. The iron-alumina garnet is found in Concord Township, at Deshong's Quarry, Shaw & Ezra's Quarry, and at Upland, near Chester ; also in Darby, Acton, Low Providence, Haverford, and Radnor Townships, Pa. A dark-red variety, similar to pyrope in color, is found in the bed of Darby Creek, near the Lazaretto, in Delaware County. Some peculiar garnets of a deep blood-red color have been mistaken for pyrope. Many garnets from both Chester and Delaware Counties have been cut, and some of them have proved of fine quality and rich color. The Alaska garnets, which are so well known for their remarkably perfect crystals, forming such a beautiful contrast to their dark-gray matrix, occur in great quantities near the mouth of the Stikeen River, in the vicinity of Fort Wrangel, Alaska. They are found about one mile from the river in a bed of mica schist, and after being quarried out, are transported on the backs of men to the river, and thence by boat to Fort Wrangel. As groups of crystals, they are the finest that have been found anywhere, and

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