superior crystals and some ounces of common pieces of the same mineral. The owners estimate the worth of this entire yield of hiddenite at about $2,500.
A quantity of quartz filled with white byssolite or asbestiform mineral, which makes very attractive specimens, is valued at $250. On the whole this is an encouraging find for this line of minerals.
The locality for emeralds referred to in the last volume of "Mineral Resources of the United States," page 739, is only a duplication of the locality described as J. O. Lackey's in the American Journal of Science, III. series, Vol. XXVII., page 153.
Hiddenite has also been found during the past year in working the property known as the Morton tract, formerly known as Smeaton's and Lyon's properties ("Mineral Resources of the United States, 1883 and 1884," page 739).
Among the flctitous reports of the finding of gems may be mentioned that of the finding of three diamonds and about a dozen topazes in the gravel along the Sangamon river, near Springfield, Illinois.
What is perhaps the finest collection of rough diamond crystals in existence was exhibited during the past year by Messrs. Tiffany & Go. in Xew York. It consisted of 904 crystals, weighing in the aggregate 1,876^- carats, and was valued at $30,000. This has since been returned to Europe. For description see "Report of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1885," page 250.
At the meeting of the British Association, held at Birmingham, September, 1886, Prof. H. Carvil Lewis read a paper on "Diamond-bearing Peridotite," in which he said he had found in Kentucky, peridotite similar to that which occurs in the Kimberley mine, and was convinced that a search would reveal the presence of diamonds in that State. Now, the diamonds in the South African deposits are accompanied by carbonaceous shale which surrounds the mine, and is also scattered through the so called "blue stuff" in sizes varying from microscopic specks to large detached masses, and forming a sort of breccia, so to speak. The theory of the volcanic origin of these pipes was first advanced by Dr. E. Cohen. In the opinion of the writer the peridotite alone is not sufficient to account for the diamonds, but rather its mixture with the shale. Unless this carbonaceous shale is present under similar conditions in Kentucky the outlook for diamonds is not encouraging. In further confirmation of this view may be mentioned Prof. H. E. Roscoc's discovery of an aromatic hydrocarbon on treating diamond earth with hot water. This hydrocarbon, which he separated by digesting the earth with ether and allowing it to evaporate, was crystalline, strongly aromatic, volatile, burned with a smoky flame, and melted at 50° (J. It was unfortunate that the quantity of the substance obtained was too small to admit of a full investigation. (Proceedings of Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, October 17, 1884, page 5.)
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