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Sec. III, Ch. 4: The Saffire

Sec. III, Ch. 4: The Saffire Page of 366 Sec. III, Ch. 4: The Saffire Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
188                               The Sapphire.
According to the Ceylon Observer, of May 4, 1889' there had been recently found " a monster blue Sapphire, the shape of a piece of jaggery, weighing down in the scales 17 rupees."
MONTANA SAPPHIRES.
Although it is only recently that the importance of the Sapphire mines of Montana has been recognized, the existence of the gem-stones at this locality has long been known. In working the gold-bearing drifts of the Missouri river, near Helena, Montana, there were found numbers of curiously-shaped stones which attracted the attention of the gold-mining pioneers ; but after casual enquiry it was stated by jewellers that they were nothing more than quartz, and consequently of no value. The restless gold-seeker, did not therefore trouble to collect them, and after the failure of the supply of water, he moved on to what he thought more promising fields, and the "curious crystals" were forgotten. A few of them, however, were carried away by the wandering miners, and ultimately found their way to the jewellers of New York, where they were recognized as Sapphires, and the fine gem-stones, after cutting, found a sale at good prices.
It is stated by Mr. George B. Foote, one of the pioneers of Helena, that the first discovery of these gems was made at Eldorado Bar, in December, 1865. The earliest scientific reference to the stones was from the pen of the late Dr. J. Lawrence Smith, the eminent mineralogist, who in a paper contributed to the American Journal of Science for September, 1873, called attention to the existence of the Sapphire in North Carolina and Montana Territory.
The Montana Sapphires usually present the form of hexagonal tabular crystals, more or less rolled, many being
Sec. III, Ch. 4: The Saffire Page of 366 Sec. III, Ch. 4: The Saffire
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