The Sapphire 95
there
is found in a light sandy clay within two feet of the surface. The "
mines" are small rough pits, the clay is washed away from the excavated
mass, and the sapphire picked out of the residue. In America, sapphires
are found at Cowee Creek in Macon County, North Carolina, where fine
crystals appear in dunite, an olivine-rock. The sapphires of Montana
are found in auriferous gravel in the Missouri River bed near Helena, a
field of operations for placer-miners for years; these miners doubtless
panned out sapphires and rubies for a long time and threw them away
without identifying them as precious stones. Sapphires are found at the
source of the Iser River in the Iser Mountains, in Bohemia in Europe;
stones of the finest quality have been found there, but they have
seldom exceeded four carats in weight.
Blue
stones which resemble sapphire, and have been sold as sapphire, are
cordierite (called "water-sapphire "); kyanite (" sapphire "); blue
tourmaline (" indicolite"); blue topaz; and blue spinel. To this list
might be added haiiy-nite, and aquamarine; all of these are softer than
sapphire, and all are less in specific gravity.
