The
largest Jasper mines are in the upper Ural Mountains, where it is
quarried in enormous blocks. These blocks are cut at the imperial
lapidary-works at Ekaterinburg. It took twenty-five years to cut a
single vase now at the Winter Palace in Petrograd. Jasper was highly
prized by the ancients and it is frequently alluded to in the Bible.
Jasperized Wood: Wood that has been naturally replaced by deposits of silica colored by metallic oxides. It is used as an ornamental stone.
Jeffersonite:
A variey of Pyroxene containing Zinc, found at Franklin, N. J. It
occurs in large crystals with rounded edges. Color greenish-black
changing to
chocolate-brown on exposed surfaces.
Kalinite:
Native Alum—Potash Alum. Usually fibrous or massive, or in mealy or
solid crusts and white in color. Transparent to translucent, and often
exhibits anomalous
double refraction. At Sicily. Kalinite occurs in the lavas of Vesuvius.
Maryland and Eastern Tennessee have afforded masses a cubic
fcot in size.
Kaolin or Silica 46.5%, Alumina 40%. This mineral when pure Kaolinite:
is white or colorless and transparent. It occurs in distinct crystals
in Wales, and at the National Belle Mine, at Silverton, Colorado. It
also occurs in foliated or drusy-earthy masses.
This
mineral is the chief constituent of clay, one of the common products of
decomposition of rocks and is used for making pottery, stoneware,
bricks, porcelain and china ware.
Kermesite:
Antimony Oxysulphide. Antimony 75%, Sulphur 20%. Occurs usually in
tufts of capillary crystals, of a cherry-red color, with brownish-red
streak. It is the
result of the alteration of Stibnite and is found in Hungary, Saxony,
France, Scotland and Canada.
Kimberlite: Diamond-bearing Rock.
Krohnkite:
Hydrous Sulphate of Copper and Sodium. This mineral occurs in
prismatic, crystalline masses with coarsely fibrous structure in the
Copper mines in Chile.
Color azure-blue changing somewhat on exposure to air.
Kunzite:
A beautiful mineral of a rich lilac color recently discovered in
southern California, and named after Dr. G. F. Kunz. It is really a
variety of Spodumene, with which
it corresponds in every respect except color.
