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150
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GEMS AND PRECIOUS STONES IN THE
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that
arose as to its discovery. Hence for a time the demand exceeded the
supply, which, from the desultory working of the mine, was limited.
Thus a 2-1/2 carat stone was sold for $500, and a number of
stones brought from $40 to over $100 a carat. The total sale of all the
gems found, from the beginning of operations in August, 1880, to the
close of 1888, amounted to about $7,500, the yield in 1882, during
which the preparatory work was done, being about $2,000. At the time of
the discovery, this was supposed to be the first occurrence of
transparent spodu-mene: but Pisani, in the Comptes Rendus for 1877,
announced a transparent yellow spodumene that had been found at Minas
Geraes, Brazil, where it exists in large quantities and has been
extensively sold as chrysoberyl. The writer saw nearly a ton of broken
crystals of this mineral atldar, Germany, in 1881, whither it had been
sent for cutting. A stone from Brazil weighing 1 carat is in the United
States National Museum, as also a series of crystals and cut stones
from North Carolina. At Branchville, Conn., spodumene is found in
crystals 4 or 5 feet long and afoot in diameter, almost entirely
altered to other minerals. In spots, however, it is transparent enough
to furnish small gems of an amethystine color. The alterations which
have taken place have entirely changed it to what might almost be
called a defunct gem; otherwise, this material would have afforded gems
over an inch in thickness and several inches in length. The color
before the alteration was probably much richer pink.1 It is of min-eralogical value only.
Smaragdite
is believed to be a variety of hornblende, and occurs plentifully at
Cullakenee Mine, Clay County, N. C. In color it is bright emerald,
grass-green, also grayish and greenish
SMARAGDITE
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1 See On Spodumene and its Alterations, by Alexis A. Julien, Ann., N. Y. Acad. Sci., Vol.I., p. 318, 1879.
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