have
a lower value. The green is a new and strictly American gem, and the
demand exceeds the supply. This and the tourmaline are the only gems
that are being actively mined at present. The total sale of gems found
and sold from the beginning of operations in August, 1880, to the close
of 1882, amounted to about $7,500, the yield in 1882, during which only
preparatory work was being done, being about $2,000 worth of gems.
The Branchville spodumene (a) would
afford only very small gems of a light amethystine color. The
alterations in color which have taken place have entirely changed it to
what might almost be called a defunct gem, which would otherwise have
afforded material for gems over one inch in thickness and several
inches in length. The color before the alteration was probably much
richer. The Branchville variety has only a miner-alogical value.
Danburite.—Danburite
(b) has been found in considerable abundance at Russell, New York. Only
an occasional crystal is clear enough to cut even a small gem. The
color is usually wine-yellow, honey-yellow, or yellowish brown. It has
not yet been used as a gem.
Rock crystal (quartz).—Rock
crystal is found at a great many localities in America. In Herkimer
county, at Lake George, and throughout the adjacent regions in New York
State the calciferous sandstone contains single crystals, and at times
cavities are found filled with doubly terminated crystals often of
remarkable perfection and brilliancy; these are collected in numbers,
cut, and often uncut are mounted in jewelry and sold to tourists under
the name of " Lake George diamonds." Those "sold in large cities under
the same name are, however, often simply paste or glass, which possess
more brilliancy but have not the same durability. Of the Herkimer
crystals possibly $3,000 worth are sold per annum. In Arkansas, at
Crystal Mountain and in the region for about forty miles around Hot
Springs, large veins of quartz are frequently met with. The quartz is
taken to Hot Springs and Little Bock by the wagon load by the farmers,
who often do blasting to secure the crystals, looking for them at such
times as their crops need no attention. In the course of a year
possibly 100 loads are sold, principally as mementos, to the visitors
at these resorts. Crystals are also sent to other localities for sale.
Usually only one-half of the crystal is clear, and a clear space over
two inches square is quite uncommon. The sale of the uncut ones from
this region amounts to fully $10,000 per annum.
At
Hot Springs clear, rolled pebbles are often sold, that have been found
on the banks of the Ouachita; these are more highly prized than the
crystal, as the common fallacy prevails that they cut clearer gems. The
scarcity of these and the demand for them has so worked upon the
cupidity of some that they have learned to produce rolled pebbles by
putting numbers of the crystals in a box which is kept revolving for
