Campbell County.—Amethyst occurs in several places in Campbell County. Crystals have been picked up in a field and a few dug from the roadside on the land of Lacey Rush, about one-third of a mile northeast of Brookneal. Two large crystals have been found here, one measuring nearly 10 mches long and 4 inches thick. The purple color in this crystal is rather pale and occurs chiefly in two layers parallel to two rhombohedral faces at one end. The rest of the crystal is colorless or gray. Colorless quartz crystals are more plentiful than the amethystine-colored ones.
Amethysts and amethystine quartz crystals have been found on the L. H. Clay place, about 10 miles northeast of Brookneal and nearly 3 miles south of west of Red House. They are rather sparingly scattered over the fields 200 to 400 yards northwest of the house. One crystal 2^ inches long and seven-eighths of an inch thick was seen, one end of which was medium dark reddish violet Amethysts are also reported in the fields of the Shelton Jennings place, three-fourths of a mile southwest of the Clay house.
Practically no work has been done at any of these places. All of the prospects are in areas of light sandy soil formed by the disintegration of granitic rock. The three localities mentioned apparently lie on the same belt of schistose granite extending northeast through Brookneal. In the outcrops this is seen to be schistose biotite-muscc-vite granite with porphyritic phases.
BERYL.
NORTH CAROLINA.
Alexander County, N. O, is famous for its gem and specimen minerals. Beryl occupies a prominent place among these, and has been found at a number of localities. Emerald and aquamarine varieties have been mined near Hiddenite, associated with green spodumene (hiddenite) and many other minerals of gem or specimen value. Occasional specimens of gem beryl have been reported from the region west and northwest of Taylorsville, and recent finds of valuable yellow and golden beryl have been made by a small amount of prospecting. Most of the gem localities of Alexander County have been idle for a number of years.
The emerald-hiddenite mine has not been operated since 1907, when the last work was done by the late Cary Wright for the American Gem Mining Syndicate. A description of these operations was given in this report for 1907. The workings are filled with water, and the whole mine site has grown up in a thicket of brush and trees. The writer was fortunate in having Mr. J. E. Turner, foreman of the mine when in operation, point out places of interest. The open cut is about 150 feet long, 20 to 50 feet wide, and 15 to 20 feet deep. The cut has a roughly east-west direction, and was made in red clay saprolite formed by the decomposition of a biotite gneiss country rock. Other pits and shafts were made near the open cut. Several veins were followed down into hard rock by two shafts 40 to 50 feet deep.
The gems occur in more or less parallel veins which are not continuous through many feet. Most of these veins have north of east strike and a high northerly dip. In places the veins run out into seams and in other places they open into pockets lined with crystals
