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Ch. 9: The Feldspar Group, including Amazonite, Moonstone, Sunstone, etc.

Ch. 9: The Feldspar Group, including Amazonite, Moonstone, Sunstone, etc. Page of 364 Ch. 9: The Feldspar Group, including Amazonite, Moonstone, Sunstone, etc. Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
UNITED STATES, CANADA AND MEXICO
171
fine specimens. The gems are so few in number as to be only mineralogical curiosities.
Andalusite is found in a number of places in the United States, but as yet no fine gem stone has been discovered. Among the locali­ties most worthy of mention are Upper Providence, Delaware County, Pa.; Westford, Mass.; Mount Wiley, Standish, Cumber­land County, Me.; and Gorham, near Sebago Lake, Me. The first-named locality is remarkable for the crystals of unusual size it has produced. Prof. Edward S. Dana describes one crystal now in the cabinet at Yale University and also another weighing more than 7 pounds.1 The crystals from Westford are not en-
ANDALUSITE
tirely perfect, but are of a fair pink color, about 2 inches long and 1/4 inch across, and of a quality to yield small gems. Those from Mount Wiley are from 1/4 to 1/8 of an inch in diameter, of good flesh-pink color, and would cut into very fair gems. In this vicin­ity there are also to be found similar crystals, in a quartz ledge associated with pyrrhotite. This association, which is identical in three different places, six miles apart, suggests the probability of the existence of andalusite in some abundance, as the spots visited are only outcrops of the same rock. Further exploration would probably result in the discovery of fine specimens. The crystals found at Gorham, as regards perfection, color, and size, are equal to those found at any locality where this mineral does not occur as a gem. The color is generally a brownish-flesh color, although at times the pink color fades into a faint grayish-pink. The crys-
1 Am. J. Sci. III., Vol. 4, p. 473, Dec., 1872.
Ch. 9: The Feldspar Group, including Amazonite, Moonstone, Sunstone, etc. Page of 364 Ch. 9: The Feldspar Group, including Amazonite, Moonstone, Sunstone, etc.
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