134 A Book of Precious Stones
ians,
and this error is prevalent in the trade in precious stones and
jewelry, almost everywhere. The usual tests, the scale of hardness
especially, will promptly differentiate chrysolite. The source of
supply of cymophane and non-chatoyant chrysoberyl second in importance
to Brazil, is the island of Ceylon. The cat's-eye record for size was
long held by a Ceylonese specimen, and, until the year 1815, this was a
jewel in the crown of the King of Kandy. The weight of the Ceylon
stones ranges from one to one hundred carats; they are found in
company with sapphires in gem-gravels, chiefly in the Suffragan
district and the vicinity of Matura in the south of the island. To a
small extent, chatoyant chrysoberyl is mined in the Ural Mountains of
Siberia.
Among
the numerous minerals which when fibrous, or cut across the cleavage
and convex, will exhibit the opalescent ray resembling the contracted
pupil of the eye of a cat, are beryl, corundum, crocidolite,
dumortierite, quartz, filled with acicular crystals or fibrous
minerals, such as actinolite, byssolite, or hornblende; hypersthene,
enstatite, bronzite, arago-nite, gypsum, labradorite, limonite, and
hematite. These may be opaque, translucent, or
