|
PRECIOUS STONES.
|
937
|
||
|
|
|||
|
Smith, who proposed to name the variety after its discoverer, Mr. Hidden." Later in the same year Prof. Edward S. Dana described the variety more fully, especially with regard to crystallography, from additional and liner material.*
The circumstances connected with the discovery of this emerald spodumene were related by Mr. Hidden in a paper published in October, 1887. The locality, since known as the Emerald and Hiddenite Mine, is in Alexander County, 1(5 miles northwest of Statesville, K. C, and about twice that distance southeast from the Blue Ridge.
The finding of the new variety of transparent lilac spodumene in California is one of the most notable discoveries of a gem mineral that has been made in a long time. It not only adds a novel and elegant stone of purely American production to those used in jewelry, but a stone that has great scientific interest from the remarkable properties it possesses in connection with the action of Roentgen (or X) rays and those of radium and like substances. The first of these large and elegant crystals were obtained early in 1903, close to a deposit of colored tourmaline, itself of notable interest, a mile and half northeast of Pala, in San Diego County, Cal., and now known as the Pala Chief. This new discovery is but a half mile northeast of the celebrated rubellite and lepidolite mine at Pala/ where recent developments have brought to light great quantities of amblygonite, this species occurring by the ton, while the lepidolite is estimated by the thousand tons. The locality is thus unequalled in the world for its abundance of lithia minerals. The colored tourmalines at the new opening are of remarkable size and elegance: but the spodumene crystals were an unexpected novelty large, transparent, and beautiful in their color tones, varying from deep rosy lilac at some deptli to pale or almost colorless nearer the surface, a change doubtless due to weathering or to the action of sunlight.
The following figures give the weights and dimensions of seven of the principal crystals.
Weight and dimension* of California spodumene crystals.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||