546 MINERAL RESOURCES.
neighborhood,
including the San Felipe, Navajo, Isleta, Acoma, and Jicorilla Apache
tribes, and a curious custom is maintained. A carved wooden image of
the saint, about four feet high, which is said to date from the time of
the reconquest in 1692, is carried in procession through the principal
streets to a small tent made of the finest Navajo blankets. Here it is
placed on an improvised altar and various offerings are presented to
it. Among these are strings of turquois beads, both round and flat, of
the choicest color, which are suspended from the ears of the figure and
from a string which encircles its neck, while on its breast is hung one
of the curious turquois-encrusted marine clamshells, similar to one
which Lieut. F. H. Gushing found in the excavations near Tempe,
Arizona.(a) With the exception of a black band of obsidian running
across the center, the entire exterior of the shell is covered with a
sort of miniature pavement of little squares of .turquois cemented to
it with a black shellac-like substance obtained from the " grease-wood
" plant common iu New Mexico and Arizona.
Tourmaline.—The
Mount Apatite Mining Company, organized in 1891, kept a small force of
men at work at Mount Apatite, Auburn, Maine, during that summer and
obtained a large quantity of material in the form of mineral specimens,
but few gems of any value. The operations carried on by private parties
yielded during 1890 about $1,000.
In
September, 1881, the Mount Mica Tin and Mica Company was organized
under the laws of the State of Maine, proposing to explore and mine the
deposits in Oxford county, which were believed to be rich in tin, mica,
tourmaline, and the minerals of the lithia group. Their principal
property was the Bowker farm, situated on the famous Mount Mica, in the
town of Paris, Oxford county, Maine, about 4 miles distant from South
Paris station, on the Grand Trunk railroad. The company was organized
with a nominal capital, the stock being entirely held by the directors
and officers. Work has been carried on from time to time at this
locality, generally when the farm hands in the vicinity were not
otherwise employed. This is true as well of the mine at Hebron, Maine,
also secured by the company. Single gems have been obtained valued at
over $500 each, and in .all at least $15,000 worth have been found
since 1881. A number of these have been sold and others retained by the
directors, in whose collections they have been placed. The bulk of the
crystals—the famous Hamlin collection of tourmalines—has been sold by
Dr. A. C. Hamlin and presented by Mr. James A. Garland to the
mineralogical cabinet of Harvard University. This collection will be
more fully described and figured in colors in a publication which Dr.
Hamlin is now preparing. It contains the finest crystals of tourmaline
on the matrix found at Mount Apatite, and the finest collection of
minerals found associated with tourmalines at this locality, collected
by Mr. Thomas F. Lamb, of Port-
