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488 MINERAL RESOURCES.
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and
there called " rubies," are as fine as those from any other known
locality, the blood-red being the most desirable. Very fine almandine,
hyacinth yellow, and other colors, are also found associated with
olivine and sapphire. Chester county, Pennsylvania, has afforded some
fair gems, and some quite fine ones have been found at Stony Point.
North Carolina, and at other localities, but the only ones used as gems
are from New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado, which yield annually about
-$5,000 worth of cut stones. As an example of their quality, a
remarkably fine one was sold to a gem connoisseur for $50, but equally
good stones have often sold for much less.
Essonite (cinnamon garnet).—Essonite
has been found in very fine crystals at Phippsburg and Warren, New
Hampshire: Raymond, Maine: and at many other points in America. Yet
only occasionally crystals are found that will cut gems even of value to collectors.
Grossularite has recently been found in perfect, opaque crystals in Gila canon, Arizona.
Tourmaline.—The
principal source of tourmaline in the United States js the famous
locality, Mount Mica, at Paris, Maine, which place has from time to
time produced some of the handsomest achroftes, rubellites,
indic-olites, and green tourmalines known. The tints of the green,
blue, pink, and yellow tourmalines found here are usually of the light
and most desirable shades, (a) Work is now being carried on.
The yield for 1882 was something over $2,000, and the entire quantity
of gems that have from time to time been taken from this locality at
the higher rate asked for them as American gems would possibly amount
to from $50,000 to $65,000.
Colored
tourmalines have been found at Hebron, Norway, and Auburn, Maine.
Extended work may bring as fine gems to light hen- as at Paris, Maine,
as the indications are equally good at all these places.
Colorless and brown tourmalines, which cut into fair gems, (b) have
been found at De Kalb, New York. The fine black from Pierpont and the
fine brown from Gouverneur, in the same State, have no value as gems.
Iolite.—Polite
has been found at Haddam, Connecticut, in pieces of a dark-blue color
and sufficiently clear to cut small gems, but these were of local and
mineralogical value only, owing to their small size.
Spodumene.—Spodumene
has been found transparent at two localities in the United States, the
variety hiddenite or "lithia emerald" at Stony Point, Alexander county,
North Carolina, and a variety of amethystine color at Branchville,
Connecticut.
Hiddenite, (c) or
" lithia emerald," is found associated with emerald, beryl, rutile, and
garnet; the more valuable is the rich grass-green, and is rarely met
with. Quite perfect gems of good color, weighing 2 -1/2 karats, have
been cut. The light-green, yellow, yellow-green, and colorless
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