so abundantly found here and all along Bergen hill where any tunneling has been carried on.
Fine
crystals are found in the Lake Superior copper region. None has been
sold for gems in the United States, though it is occasionally used as
an initial gem for the letter "N" in initial jewelry.
Pectolite.—Among
the Eskimo implements collected by the United States Signal Service at
Point Barrow, Alaska, and examined by Prof. F. W. Clarke(a), was a
supposed jade, which he found on analysis to be a ne*w and interesting
variety of compact light-green pectolite; specific gravity, 2.873.
This was obtained from some point east of Point Barrow, on the Kowak
river, and forms an interesting and unexpected addition to this line of
gem stones.
Apophyllite (also called fish-eye stone) is really too soft for gem purposes, though repeated references are made to it by gem writers.
The
Brie tunnel, Bergen hill, afforded thousands of fine doubly-terminated
detached crystals, less than one-fourth inch in diameter, that were
really beautiful as ornaments; this same tunnel afforded a single
crystal 4 inches in diameter. Some beautiful ones have also been found
at the Cliff mine and other localities in the Lake Superior copper
region, at times being perfect specimens of limpidity. The West Shore
railroad tunnel at Weehawken, New Jersey, was the first locality in the
United States to produce pink and flesh-colored crystals. Many
beautiful ones were found here, though not as fine as the Andreasberg
or the Mexican varieties. This and the Lake Superior locality would
both afford material for cutting.
Apatite.—Apatite
was found in such remarkably perfect and fine-colored crystals at the
tourmaline locality at Auburn, Maine, by Mr.N. H. Perry, that the hill
on which the tourmalines were found has been named Mount Apatite. These
crystals were transparent green, pink, and violet, and so much
resembled tourmaline as at times to have been mistaken for it. Some of
the local collectors attempted cutting some of them, but the hardness
is too low for a transparent gem.
Crocidolite.—Crocidolite
was observed by Col. Joseph Wilcox(b) in long, delicate fibers of a
blue color, in one of the western counties of North Carolina.
Mr. Theo. D. Band found a dark-bluish, fibrous mineral at the Falls of the Schuylkill, and Prof. W. T.
Eoepper (c) found at Coopersburg, associated with white and
brownish-white garnet, bluish-white crystalline fibrous coatings,
which may belong here.
Crocidolite
was also observed near Cumberland, Bhode Island, and at Eland Fountain,
Orange river, New Jersey, though none of gem value has yet been found
in the United States.
Serpentine.—The many fine varieties of serpentine found in the United
a American Journal of Science, III., Vol. XXXVIII., page 63.
b " Minerals and Mineral Localities of North Carolina,'' 1881, page 41.
c " Preliminary report on the Mineralogy of Pennsylvania," page 10.
