dant,
and of larger size. Many of the surf-worn pebbles of Pescadero Beach,
Cal, are agate and quartz, of very fine, bright colors, and are
occasionally utilized as gem stones. Fine agates have been found with
the jaspers on the Willamette, Columbia, and other rivers in Oregon. At
Tampa Bay, Fla., red and yellow carnelian and sardonyx result from the
silicification of the corals and sponges, and occur in rolled pebbles
on the beach, and although the pieces are not large, the colors are
very beautiful.
The
silicified bones of Atlantasaurus, a great extinct saurian, found at
Morrison, Col., have at times a coarse cellular structure, which has
been infiltrated with carnelian, giving a very pleasing effect of
brilliant red stripes and spots. Chalcedony coats and incloses the
crystallized cinnabar of the Redington and other mines of California ;
and these crusts, if cut with the cinnabar, form some of the prettiest
and most interesting gem stones ever found. The chalcedony coatings on
the blue and green chrysocolla found in the cavities of the Copper
Queen Mine, Ariz., are very beautiful if cut in the same manner. (See
Agatized Wood.) No stone, used in jewelry, that is found in the United
States is cheaper, more beautiful, or more plentiful than the moss
agate. Those found in brooks and streams, called "riveragates," are the
most desirable. Nearly all are sent abroad for cutting, and returned
for home use. When this stone was fashionable, fine stones were worth
$10 each and upwards, and as much as $20,000 worth was sold in a year,
but at present they are only sold to tourists or used in the cheapest
jewelry. The principal sources of the supply are Utah, Colorado,
Montana, and Wyoming. Large quantities of moss agates were found in the
excavations formed in constructing the Omaha and Council Bluffs Bridge
over the Missouri River, and near Cheyenne in Wyoming they are found by
the ton. A so-called moss agate is found at Rock Springs, Lancaster
County, and near Reading, Berks County, Pa. Moss agate was formerly
found near Hillsborough, Orange County, N. C. The agatized trees from
Holbrook and Specimen Mount show mosslike marking, more like that of
the fine tree-stones from Brazil or the Mocha stones from India than of
the common moss agate. One
