Ch. 7: Quartz Group - Opal, Rock Crystals, Amethysts, Rose Quartz, Agate, etc.

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	UNITED STATES, CANADA AND MEXICO	111

	who search for them when their crops do not need attention. They are sold by the local dealers, principally as mementoes. Probably a hundred wagon-loads have been bought by visitors at these and other resorts. Usually only half of the crystal is clear, and a clear space over two inches square is quite uncommon. The sale of uncut crystals from this region amounts to fully $10,000 per annum. At Hot Springs, Ark., clear rolled pebbles, that are found on the banks of the Washita River, are often sold and are more highly prized than the crystals, because of the mistaken belief that they will cut into clearer gems. The great demand for these pebbles, which are scarce, has so excited the cupidity of some of the inhabitants of the vicinity that they have learned to produce rolled pebbles by putting numbers of the crystals in a box, which is kept revolving for a few days by water-power. Any expert, however, can discern the difference, since the artificial ones are a little whiter on the surface. Many localities in Colorado yield fine specimens of quartz, and all along the Atlantic coast at Long Branch, Atlantic City, Cape May, and other places, transparent pebbles are found in the sand, and are much sought after by visitors, who often have them cut as souvenirs. At Narragansett Pier, R. I., some of the local lapidaries have been known to substitute for pebbles found on the beach, foreign cut quartz, cairngorm, topaz, crocidolite, moonstone from Ceylon, and even glass. At all of these resorts large quantities of the quartz pebbles are cut in gems and seals, and all manner of ornaments are sold as having been found in the vicinity. Sometimes even the stones that have been found by the visitors, and intrusted to lapidaries to be cut, are exchanged for cut stones, brought to this country from Bohemia, Oldenburg, and the Jura, where cutting is done on such a large scale and by labor so poorly paid that the cut stones can be delivered in this country at one-tenth of the price of cutting here, as the rock crystal in the articles themselves has but little value. The annual proceeds of the sale of cut stones and the money expended in cutting them at these different localities may amount to $20,000 or more a year, and the sale of specimens to as much more. The clear crystal used in the United States for optical purposes is almost entirely Brazilian, not on account of any defici-

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