92 GEMS AND PRECIOUS STONES IN THE
centimeters
wide, and has fifty different layers, twenty-five of beryl, the
remaining twenty-five of albite, quartz, and mus-covite. All the
corners of the hexagonal prism are carried out in full, giving the
beryl an asteriated appearance, and making it a striking and
interesting specimen. Prof. Parker Cleaveland mentions1
having seen several emeralds from Topsham, Me., of a lively green
color, scarcely, if at all, inferior to the finest Peruvian emeralds;
also two beautiful rose-colored beryls, over i inch across, have been
found at Goshen, Mass., and are in the Gibbs Cabinet at Yale
University. An emerald from Haddam, Conn., deep green in color, an inch
in diameter and several inches in length, is mentioned in Bruce's "
Mineralogical Journal"' as belonging to Col. George Gibbs' cabinet; but
as no true emeralds from Haddam and Topsham are in existence, this may
really be a dark-green beryl, as the species beryl is in that locality
called emerald.
In
the United States National Museum, at Washington, are three beryls, one
6 carats in weight, of a light-green color, another i carat,
light-blue, from Royalston, Mass., and a third and perhaps the finest
specimen ever found at the Portland, Conn., quarries, is 15 carats in
weight, and of a rich sea-blue color, almost deep enough to rival in
splendor the superb 3-carat Brazilian blue-stone that is in the same
case. The writer obtained at Stoneham, Oxford County, Me., two beryls,
exceptional for the United States. These were found in 1881, several
miles apart, and several miles from the topaz region, by farmers who
were traversing pastures in the township. The first was found in two
pieces, as if it had been roughly used, and broken, and discarded as
worthless, or else broken in taking from the rock and then rejected,
its value not being known. This crystal measured 4 2/3 inches
(120 millimeters) long, and 2 1/10 inches (54 millimeters) wide, and
was originally about 5 inches (130 millimeters) long, and 3 inches (75
millimeters) wide. The color was rich sea-green viewed in the
direction of the longer axis of the prism, and sea-blue of a very deep
tint through the side of the crystal. In color and material, this is
the finest specimen that has been found at any North
1 Mineralogy and Geology, by Parker Cleaveland, p. 341, Boston, 1822.
2 Vol. 5, p. 9, 1813.
