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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
143
resembles and has the absorptive properties of tabasheer, the variety of opal which is formed in the joints of the bamboo, and which is used in India for medicinal purposes. Undoubtedly, better material of the kind exists where this was found. The opals sold so extensively at tourists' resorts are generally of Mexi­can origin. A beautiful fire opal without any opalescence occurs in a small vein about 1/4 inch thick and 2 inches square, from Washington County, Ga.; this locality was first described by Prof. George J. Brush of the Sheffield Scientific School, and he has the finest piece of this opal in his cabinet. Common opal in small masses of a greenish and yellowish-white color, with vitreous lustre, is found at Cornwall, Lebanon County, Pa., also at Aguas Calientes, Gilson Gulch, Idaho Springs, Col., of a
OPAL
brownish color in narrow seams in the granite. J. W. Beath of Philadelphia, Pa., states that he had seen fine opal specimens showing play of colors, reported to have come from the latter place. William P. Blake ' writes that a rich white variety of opal is found at Mokelumne Hill, Calaveras County, Cal.; and on the elevation near that place known as Stockton Hill, on the west side of Chile Gulch, a shaft had been sunk 345 feet, and opals were found there in a thin stratum of red gravel varying from the size of a kernel of corn to that of a walnut, and many of them con­taining dendritic infiltrations of oxide of manganese resembling moss. These stones were erroneously supposed to have consid­erable market, value, and in 1866 about a bushel of them were raised to the surface in a day. A milky variety, similar to the above and without fire, is found with magnesite on Mount Diablo, Cal., thirty miles south of the mountain; also in the foothills of the Sierra at the Four Creeks. Yellow fire opals in small nodules not over an inch in diameter, from Mount Pleasant, Bergen
1 Catalogue of California Minerals (1866) p. 18.
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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