70 A Book of Precious Stones
at
the same time, pointed out the locality from which they were taken;
this spot, Somondoco, is now being mined by an English corporation,
although only second-class stones have been found there by these modern
emerald miners. Muzo, where the present supply of the world's finest
emeralds is mined, is about one hundred miles distant in the eastern
Cordilleras of the Andes on the east side of the Rio Magdalena in its
northward course. The only other locality of importance where emerald
beryls are now found is about fifty miles east of Ekaterinburg in the
Ural Mountains, Siberia, where Uralian chrysoberyl, or alexandrite, is
found. The grass-green beryl is also found in an almost inaccessible
locality in the Salzburg Alps.
Fine
emeralds have been found in the United States, the most notable
locality at Stony Point in Alexander County, North Carolina, but the
supply at this place seems to be exhausted.
The
name "emerald" applied indiscriminately to green transparent,
translucent, and even opaque stones, complicates, to the inexpert,
everything about the emerald question; for instance, it was long
assumed that emeralds came from Brazil and green stones were called "
Brazilian emeralds." There is no authentic proof
