prices
are obtained. Beryl brings from $2.50 to $15 per carat, according to
quality and size. Pink beryl of good quality is sold for about $8 per
carat. Considerable turquoise, obtained from Arizona, Nevada, and
California, is also cut and sold by the lapidaries. The one-color blue
gems bring from $3 to $10 per carat and matrix stones from 25 cents to
$1 or more.
THE GEMS OF NORTH CAROLINA.
An
admirable treatise on the "History of the gems found in North
Carolina," by Dr. George F. Kunz, has recently appeared as Bulletin No.
12 of the North Carolina Geological and Economic Survey. The report is
illustrated with fifteen plates showing specimens of gems, their
associated minerals, and occurrence. Four of the plates are beautifully
colored, showing either rough or cut gems, or both, of ruby, sapphire,
diamond, beryl, aquamarine, emerald, hiddenite, smoky and rutilated
quartz, amethyst, cyanite, and rhodolite garnet. Doctor Kunz calls
attention to the fact that many of the gems of North Carolina have been
found or obtained during mining for other minerals, as corundum, mica,
monazite, etc. The history of events leading to the discovery of
certain gems, as the emerald and emerald matrix on Crabtree Mountain,
Mitchell County, and the emerald and hiddenite deposits of Alexander
County, is given. The occurrence of ten authentic finds of diamonds and
several reported discoveries are carefully reviewed. The corundum gems,
or ruby and sapphire, beryl gems, or aquamarine and emerald,
hiddenite, quartz gems, as amethyst, rock crystal, smoky, rutilated
quartz, etc., and garnet, receive the most attention. Other gems, as
moonstone, rutile, cyanite, etc., are mentioned. The coloring of the
different gems is well described.
GEM MINERALS OF CANADA.
A
few notes on the gem minerals of Canada have been kindly furnished by
the director of the geological survey of Canada, through Mr. R. A. A.
Johnston, a mineralogist of that survey. The following minerals have
been found as recorded:
Beautiful pinkish colored and clear white apophylite in the mines of Rossland, British Columbia.
Pale to dark blue colored amblygonite in small masses near Lake Ramsay, Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia.
Aventurene,
composed of amazon stone interlaminated with quartz, on lot 7,
concession A, Cameron Township, Nipissing district, Ontario.
Large
crystal masses of translucent and clear sea-green colored fluorite in a
vein near the village of Madoc, Hastings County, Ontario.
Fine
green scales of fuchsite scattered through dolomites and magnesites in
Yukon district. Polished specimens form handsome ornamental stone with
greenish and reddish mottling in a ground-mass of white or yellowish
white.
Dark
wine or cherry-red almandine garnets in large crystals in a hornblende
schist south of Hudson Strait, Ungava district. Almandine suitable for
gems is occasionally found in Chicoutimi and Charlevoix counties,
Quebec.
Agate
and chalcedony in many places in the volcanic rocks of Yale and Caribou
districts, British Columbia. Small masses of prase
