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of chalcedony, yet not a single object made of chipped crystal was
found. In a number of the mounds leveled by the farmers in cultivating,
and not examined systematically, single crystals of quartz were
revealed, which may, however, have been kept for their beauty and
symmetry by the Indians. The report of the finding at Bakersville, N.
C, of transparent crystals of quartz, weighing 642 pounds and 340
pounds respectively, was premature, what was found proving to be, not
crystals, but veins of translucent quartzite, with the crystalline
markings of a group rather than of a single crystal. The clear spaces,
which were to be observed only on these crystalline sides, would hardly
afford material for a crystal ball an inch in diameter, and with this
exception they were almost an opaque white, with flaws. Specimens of
rutilated quartz and of rock crystal, one mass of which weighed over 10
pounds, and was quite clear, though fractured by frosts, were found
near Stuart, Va. Near Trinidad, Col., there have been found large
quantities of crystalline quartz, with small, doubly terminated
crystals, resembling those from Herkimer County, N. Y. Some of these
crystals afford larger masses of clear rock crystal than have ever
before been found in the United States, and suggest its use for art
objects, such as the crystal balls, clock-cases, mirrors, etc., which
are now to be seen in the Austrian Treasury at Vienna. In Alexander
and Burke Counties, N. C, crystals of white as well as of smoky quartz
have been found, in which were spaces that would cut into clear crystal
balls of from 2 to 2 1/4 inches. One of these from Alexander County,
measuring 2 3/10\ inches, is in the State Museum of Natural History at
Albany, N. Y. A very interesting bead made of rock crystal, fluted and
drilled from both ends, is in the collection of A. E. Douglas, in New
York City. It is evidently native work, as it is improbable that
foreign traders would use white rock crystal beads, when glass would
answer the purpose as well.
Amethyst
is found on Deer Hill, at Stow, Me., where there is a vein of
amethystine quartz which has been traced fully one-quarter of a mile,
and has furnished many thousands of crystals during the last twenty
years, scarcely any of them, however, being of any gem value; but among
some amethysts found dur-
