Another
mineral of interest because of its rarity and of the fine quality found
here is microlite. A few exceptionally fine crystals have been cut for
gems, as described by W. E. Hidden.1 The particular crystal
mentioned had a specific gravity of 6.13 and weighed 0.877 grams. It
was perfectly transparent with a hyacinth-red color. When cut into '' a
gem it had all the brilliancy and beauty of a fine hyacinth or of an
essonite garnet." Hidden also mentions red
P
yrope-colored
microlites from the same locality in the Bement col-lection. These
crystals measured nearly a centimeter across and were embedded in smoky
quartz.
Other
minerals of more or less interest found in the Rutherfoord mine were
columbite, monazite, allanite, orlhite, helvite, apatite, galena,
stibnite, zircon, and pyrochlore. Specimens of monazite 8 pounds in
weight were found.
Amazon
stone occurs at the Richeson, formerly Berry, mica mine, 1-1/4 miles N.
35° E. of Amelia Courthouse close to the track of the Richmond &
Danville branch of the Southern Railway. The visible remains of the
work here consist of a roughly circular pit about 35 feet in diameter
and 15 feet deep to water with a cribbed shaft about 10 feet square in
the bottom.
The
country rock is rotted mica schist and gneiss, with gentle rolling
folds approximating flat strata. The vein is a large pegmatite cutting
the gneiss with an approximately east and west (possibly south of east)
strike. Practically all the information available had to be obtained
from a study of the dump. On the latter was a quantity of small blocks
of pale semibleached amazon stone, white partly altered orthoclase or
microcline, scrap mica of light color, and glassy translucent quartz.
One bowlder of mottled yellow and reddish chalcedony or chalcedonic
quartz was found at the side of the pit and one small crystal of
columbite in the dump. The chalcedony would yield a rather attractive
cheap gem if cut. Amazon stone of good color and quality might be found
if the mine were reopened.
COLORADO.
There
was renewed activity during 1912 in the mining of amazon stone and the
beautiful associated minerals of the Crystal Peak region, 5 to 10 miles
north of Florissant, Teller County, Colo. Claims have been worked by J.
D. Endicott, of Canon City, Colo., around Crystal Peak for a number of
years, and in 1912 the Crystal Peak Gem Co., of Cripple Creek, Colo.,
also operated several claims. A quantity of gem and specimen material
was obtained, most of which is being prepared for the 1913 tourist
trade, for which trade the native Colorado gems are always in much
demand.
The
minerals found are similar to those obtained in the Crystal Park region
on the east side of Pikes Peak, described in this report for 1908.
Crystals of amazon stone and smoky quartz are the most plentiful, but
fine topaz and phenacite also occur associated with them. Other rarer
minerals, as xenotine and fayalite, have also been found. The amazon
stone, quartz, topaz, and phenacite are generally crystallized, and
when not sufficiently good for gems they still afford fine specimens,
either of single crystals or of groups of one or more crystals.
i A transparent ciystal of microlite: Am. Jour. Sci., 3d ser., vol. 30,1885, p. 82.
