of
Ramona, San Diego County, Cal., and gives a series of observations
thereon, which he stater, are to he more fully presented in a
forthcoming paper on the lithia minerals of California. He tinds in
general a very close relation to mus-covite, with certain differences,
however, in three respects, viz: That in lepido-lite twinning is very
rare, the characteristic M face of muscovite (221) is wanting and the a face (100) unusual in niuscovite. is frequent.
He
also describes a mode of occurrence in lepidolite from Mount Mica.
Maine, which has very rarely been previously reported. This is the
globular aggregation of crystals, which is not infrequent in
niuscovite. It has been barely mentioned by von Rath, from Elba, and by
Doctor Hamlin, from Mount Mica. Mr. Schaller reports it as occurring
both at Mount Mica and at Mount Apatite, on Pulsifer's Ledge in Auburn.
Me. At both these localities the spheroidal group? attain a size of
several centimeters in diameter.
MISCELLANEOUS.
Gem minerals at the Portland Exposition.—The
products and resources of the Pacific States were illustrated on a
large scale at the Lewis and Clark Exposition held at Portland, Oreg..
in 1905. Among these the mineral exhibits were very conspicuous, and
the Palace of Mines impressed every visitor. A marked feature in this
building was the collection of precious, semiprecious, and ornamental
stones of the Pacific coast and adjacent States, which the writer was
appointed to prepare. It included representatives of all the more
remarkable gem minerals from the entire Pacific coast region and from
many points of the interior Northwest, together with some from Arizona
and Utah. Most of these have already been described in the reports of
this Bureau.
From
the Pacific coast proper the most northerly exhibit was that of large
crystals of garnet from Fort Wrangell. Alaska. From Prince of Wales
Island were shown magnificent large crystals of dark-green epidote.
found by accident in mining for copper. Of special interest are the
aboriginal celts, hammers, and knives made of green jade, found in
graves in Alaska. Lieutenant Storey, U. S. Navy, succeeded some years
ago in finding this substance in place as a vein material at a point
known as Jade Mountain. Thus was disproved the hotly contested theory
that jade existed only in Asia, and hence that all the material,
whether found in ancient Roman graves, in France, in the Swiss lakes,
or in America, must have been brought by migration or by trade from
that continent.
Fine agates were shown from Oregon.
A
mineral exhibited and closely similar in appearance to jade is that
named by the writer californite, a variety of compact green vesuvianite
from Yreka, Siskiyou County. Cal., a stone almost as tough and as
beautiful as the best jade, for which it was at first mistaken. Other
ornamental stones from California were blue chalcedony (sapphirine)
from Kern County, and chrysoprase from Visalia. Tulare- County. A
notable exhibit was that of the great crystals and masses of
transparent quartz obtained some years since,
in Calaveras County, Cal., from which were cut, as shown in the case,
rock crystal balls measuring from 2-3/8 to 5-7/8 inches in diameter.
Southern
California, as has already been noted, is fast becoming known as one of
the most remarkable gem regions in the world, rivaling the long
celebrated treasure ground of the Ural Mountains. San Diego County,
with its wonderful yield of gems, was more fully represented than any
other part of the coast, notably in the splendid tourmalines from Mesa
Grande and Pala—red, green, yellow, and bicolored crystals weighing
several pounds, cut gems
