As it is, there is barely enough of it to supply the cabinets. The stone is well worthy of attention. Mr. W. A. Woodcock communicates that malachite, which is evidently ot value in the arts, has been sent to him from the Yukon country, Alaska.
Amber. Mr. J. B. Livezey sent the writer a specimen piece of amber found on the southwest branch of Mantua creek, near the town of Sewall, which is 13 miles below Camden, New Jersey. This specimen was taken from the lower marl bed, while the one from Harrisonville, described in a previous report, was from the middle marl bed. Information was also obtained that several other pieces had been found at the former locality, but they have been lost.
Chrysoberyl. Among some small rolled quartz pebbles sent to Messrs. Tiffany & Co., for examination, a transparent yellow chrysoberyl was observed which would afford a J carat stone.
Diamond. In the summer of 1886 a diamond was found in the spring on the Alfred Bright farm at Dysortville, McDowell county, North Carolina. While Mr. Grayson Christie's son was drawing a bucket of water, his attention was attracted by the brightness of the stone. It was thought to be a diamond and sent to Messrs. Tiffany & Co., and was so proved to be by the writer. The stone is a distorted hexoctahedron with partial twinning; its length is 10 millimeters and its width 7 millimeters. It is quite perfect and transparent, but having a grayish-yellow tint. Its specific gravity is 3.549 + . This stone being more than an average find, the writer thought it would be of interest to visit the locality, and while there, in June, 1887, he fully authenticated all the facts of the finding. No trace of garnet, peridotite, or any of the associations of the diamond was found near the spot. The sediment at the bed of the spring was taken out and carefully examined, as also were the small hollows on the adjacent hillside. This diamond must therefore have been transported in decomposing soil from distant higher ground in the viciuity during a heavy freshet. Its value as a gem, not counting any value its American origin may attach to it, would be from about one hundred to one hundred and fifty dollars. A number of small stones, exhibited as diamonds, have been found at Brackettstown, near by. They are identical with the supposed fine diamonds found by Capt. J. C. Mills at his mine at Brindletown; that is, transparent zircon or smoky-colored quartz, the former of which has a luster that is readily mistaken for the diamond's by an inexperienced person. A number of pieces of bort (rough diamond) exhibited as from the same section, I am informed on good authority, are of South African, and not North Carolina, origin. It is to be hoped that the few legitimate finds which have actually occurred at this locality will not lead to any deceptions, which would greatly retard any natural development.
The stone, 34 ounces, and said to be a diamond, and which was found by J. S. Keyser in digging for coal near Posica, Nebraska, proved not to be such, although the excitement it caused was certainly genuine.
