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

Ch. 7: Quartz Group - Opal, Rock Crystals, Amethysts, Rose Quartz, Agate, etc. Page of 364 Ch. 7: Quartz Group - Opal, Rock Crystals, Amethysts, Rose Quartz, Agate, etc. Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
       
     
 
UNITED STATES, CANADA AND MEXICO
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micular chlorite which they contain. Another piece, which was cut from this specimen, is in the Silliman Collection at Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y. Beautiful pieces of quartz 3 by 4 inches, and fine crystals penetrated by clove-brown and black ru-tile, were formerly found at Middlesex, Vt., and in 1848, when the cut for the Central Vermont Railroad was made through a perpendicular mass of talcose slate, at Waterbury, Vt., a vein or pocket of quartz was found containing many fine crystals of ru-tilated quartz.1 Rutilated quartz of unexcelled beauty, the rutile usually brown, red, golden, and black, has been found in many places in Randolph, Catawba, Burke, Iredell, and Alexander Counties, N. C, and in 1888, crystals of quartz, 3 inches in length, and filled with rutile the thickness of a pin, were found at Stony Point Beautiful series of these are in the collections of J. W. Wilcox and Clarence S. Bement, both of Philadelphia. Fine pieces of quartz, 4 inches square, containing acicular rutile of a rich red color, have been found near Amelia Court House, Va. Some fine acicular crystals of rutile in limpid quartz, now in the possession of Joseph Wharton, of Philadelphia, were found near Kinger's, Lancaster County, Pa. At Calumet Hill Quarry, Cumberland, R. I., beautiful specimens of limpid milky quartz from 2 to 6 inches square, and also quartz crystals, at times 3/4 inch to 2 inches long, are found penetrated by crystals of black hornblende varying in thickness from a needle's diameter to about 1/16 inch, and these are at times 6 inches long, in­terlaced and penetrating the quartz in every direction, making a very beautiful gem and ornamental stone. Specimens of this character are preserved by the quarrymen to sell to collectors. Several hundred pounds of this material were sent abroad about 1883 to be cut into jewelry at Idar and Oberstein, but as work has been suspended at Calumet Hill, the mineral is likely to become somewhat scarce. Cut specimens command prices rang­ing from twenty-five cents to $5 each. The specimens found here are quite equal to the variety found in Japan, and are even better adapted for use in jewelry than the remarkable trans­parent masses, over a foot across, procured from Madagascar, in which the crystals of hornblende are too large.
1 Am. J. Sd. I., Vol. 10, p. 14, July, 1850.
  
 
 
  
       
Ch. 7: Quartz Group - Opal, Rock Crystals, Amethysts, Rose Quartz, Agate, etc. Page of 364 Ch. 7: Quartz Group - Opal, Rock Crystals, Amethysts, Rose Quartz, Agate, etc.
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