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Ch. 11: Opal

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The Opal                         119
in recent years has been the Australia mines, the most prominent being White Cliffs, New gouth Wales. Extensive mining operations are carried on there, the matrix of the opal being a cretaceous sandstone, which has been perme­ated by hot volcanic waters. The output of this region has already been represented by mil­lions of dollars. Opals have been obtained in commercial quantities at localities on the Barcoo River and Bulla Creek, Queensland, and are occasionally found in West Australia.
The admiration of the ancients for the opal is expressed by Onomacritus, writing five hun­dred years b.c. who remarks: " The delicate colour and tenderness of the opal remind me of a loving and beautiful child." Pliny, whose voluminous books covered so wide a range, and who evidently believed himself qualified to write about anything, wrote of the opal: " It is made up of the glories of the most precious gems, and to describe it is a matter of inex­pressible difficulty." The ancients esteemed the opal highly, and attributed to it an influence for every possible good; this belief outlasted the Middle Ages, and in the early part of the seventeenth century the opal is recorded as being as highly valued as ever. Then arose a
Ch. 11: Opal Page of 451 Ch. 11: Opal
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