precious
almandite occurs in any part of Burma, while in Upper Burma the only
red stones found are ruby, spinel, and red tourmaline. Long ago,
therefore, Syriam was merely a distributive point for garnets brought
to its market from a distance, possibly from the Shan states to the
eastward. The " Sirian " garnet is now merely a type; it tends toward a
violet colour.
In
northern India almandite is mined on an extensive scale in several
localities. The stone is found in the Alps, Australia, and Brazil; a
variety too opaque to be very valuable, occurs plentifully on the
Stickeen River in Alaska. Metamorphic rocks, such as gneisses or mica
schists, granite, and gem gravels are the usual environments of
almandite.
Rhodolite
is an intermediate between almandite and pyrope, more closely related
to the latter, but differing in colour from both. It is found as
water-worn pebbles in the gravels of Cowee Creek and Mason's Branch,
Macon County, North Carolina; sometimes it occurs along with ruby in a
decomposed, basic igneous rock, known as "saprolite"; a curious
occurrence is in the form of small crystals enclosed in crystals of
ruby. The colour resembles that of the rhododendron, from which this
but recently
