50 JOURNAL OF THE 



In the writer's opinion emeralds will he found on the same 

 geological horizon as the Alexander county localities over a very 

 extensive area north-east and south-west. Outside of this emerald 

 locality there is no other emerald mine known to exi>t in the 

 United States. 



Beryl (aquamarine and those varieties other than emerald). — 

 Some notable transparent beryls were mined in Alexander, 

 Macon and Yancey counties during the past five years, some of 

 which were cut into brilliant gems of marketable sizes. As high 

 as five dollars per carat has been obtained for large lots of North 

 Carolina aquamarines of pale green, blue and yellow shades. 



Those found outside of Alexander county were from the mica 

 mines, while the former were exclusively from the gem mine in 

 Alexander county, with one very remarkable exception of a huge 

 gem beryl, from a new locality north-west from Taylorsville, 

 wlu're it was found loose in the sufface soil. 



Some of them are exceediniily beautiful in their natural con- 

 dition as f unid, tlie polish on the natural crystal planes being 

 equal to that made by a la|)idary. See Plate 2, page 49. 



Some few of the Alexander county crystals have from forty to 

 ninety tei'minal faces'^ and would take rank, in a scientific sense, 

 above those of any other American locality. Tlius far eio:hteen 

 different forms (three of them 7iew) have been identified on the 

 beryls ibund at the Emerald and Hiddenite mine, while com- 

 monly only two or three forms occur. 



0])aque beryls, blue and green, weighing more than fifty 

 pounds each, have been found in Yancey and Mitchell counties, 

 and should glucina ever be desired in quantity, for commercial 

 j)urp()ses. North Carolina could supply this ore of it, by the ton. 



lIiDDExMTEf (emerald-green spodumene).-— The manner in 

 which this beautiful mineral was so unex[)ectedly discoceredl has 



='=Anrkor. Joiir. Sci., Nov., 1882, p.:\12; lb.,.Itino, 1887, pp. 50">— 5(tG. Sitznnj2;sberiehte dei- 

 Niederrheinisclieii Ge.ssell.'^chiit't fnr Nritnr — iind Heilkunde in Bonn, July 7, 1886, pp. 

 90— !);5. 



fAmer. Jour. Sr:i., I-'eh., IsSi, pp. 128—13(1, J. Lawrence Smith. 



X.\ lew pule, yellowi.sli-j^reen cry.'^tals of what, in 187H, was considered to be Diopside 

 liad been found on this same property \>y some of .Mr. Warren's chiUlren, and tiiey 

 found tlieir way into the hjcal cojk'etion of .Mr. .1. .\. f). .Siephenson, in whose eabiuft I 

 noticed fheni (in IsT'.t). Neither lie nor 1 looUeil forward to finding this mineral of .such 

 a beautiful ituii ukf.kn roi.ou as was so unexpectedly done in the vein already mentioned, 

 or of even fimiinjj; it ajrain. We did not, in fa<n, give it much attention. E.meralds 

 were tlie only goal ahead. 



