156 GEMS AND PRECIOUS STONES IN THE
into small gems, that would serve as initial stones for the letter X in jewelry.
The
allanite found in large masses and crystals in Amherst County, Va., is
very compact and bright black in color. It would furnish a metallic
black gem, which, however, would be of little or no value.
A
large quantity of gadolinite has recently been found in Llano County,
Tex. It is very compact, of deep velvet-black color, and furnishes a
stone about the color of schorlomite.
Epidote
is found in many places in the United States, and in very large
crystals. It ranges from brown to green in color, and is generally
translucent or semi-opaque, except in very small crystals. Fine
crystals have been found at Haddam, Conn., which might yield small
gems. The large crystals found in quartz at Warren, N. H., were all too
opaque for gems, yet were fine as cabinet specimens. At Roseville, in
Byram Township, Sussex County, N. J., epidote was formerly found in
good crystals of deep green that would afford small gems of little
value. The principal localities in Chester County, Pa., are West
Bradford Township ; East Bradford, where dark-green specimens occur;
and West Goshen. In East Marlborough and Kennett Townships it occurs in
yellowish-green crystals; in the limestone quarries of London Grove and
Sadsbury Townships, in bottle-green crystals. Prof. Frederick A. Genth
mentions ' a crystal of epidote in the cabinet of the University of
Pennsylvania, from the gold washings of Rutherford County, N. C. This
crystal is strongly pleochroic, like the so-called puschkinite from the
auriferous sands of Ekaterinburg, in the Ural Mountains, and would cut
into a small gem. Some fine, highly complex forms have been observed at
Hampton's, Yancey County, N. C, by William E. Hidden. These crystals
might possibly afford cabinet gems, not so fine, however, as the
Tyrolese epidote. In November, 1888, Dr. C. D. Smith sent the writer
several dozen crystals of epidote from a place one mile from Rabun Gap,
Rabun County, Ga., that are as fine in color, transparency, and habit
as those from the famous Untersultzbachthal Tyrol locality. None were
over an inch in length, but it is believed that proper working might
Minerals and Mineral Localities of North Carolina, Raleigh, p. 44, 1881.
