90 THE OREGON NATURALIST. 



SOME NORTH CAROLINA and offered for sale. No mining was done and 



MINERALS. only surface rocks were collected. But the great 



In presenting these sketches, of some North wealth of material from a scientific and com- 



Carolina minerals, necessarily crude and im- mercial standpoint has been known and studied 



perfect, taken for the most part from notes but for a short time. 



written in the field, it is not my intention to It may be said that the introduction to the 



enter into minute scientific technicalities and general collector dates from about the begin - 



details as it IS presumed that all are familiar ing of tlie eighties. Tiiis honor I believe should 



with them in some form or other or at least belong to Mr. Stephenson of Statesville, N. C. 



theoretically, but rather to touch on such and Mr. Hidden of N. J. Most of their 



points as quantity, quality, modifications, material came from Alexander county. Several 



mode of occurrence, localities and such other varities from that county are altogeth- 



matters as it is hoped will be of interest to the er distinct from any found elsewhere in the 



general collector. state. All come from the vicinity of 



Before proceeding I wish to disabuse the Hiddenite. The finest forms and those most 



reader of two ideas that seem to have taken a sought after by collectors are regular crystals, 



firm hold on the uopular fancy, viz: tliat every- locally known as "gun barrels" from the size 



thing found he'e is abundant and of fine qual- of a lead pencil in thickne s up to forty or more 



ity, pounds. The faces on many of the larger ones 



There is truly an abundance of material to are just as completely filled out, as perfect in 



select from at every turn but the destructive color and finish as the smaller ones, though 



agencies of heat, cold, sun and water, working frequently the centers are clouded and milky, 



through untold ages, slowlj disintegrating all. The color of a fine specimen is dark, a deep 



has ruined the fine crystal as well as the shape- wine-color and singularly clear, 



less granite. So truly is this the case in very A peculiarity, not noticed in specimens from 



many instances that a really fine specimen for other places and giving much interest to the 



cabinet or for gem purposes is the exception student is a system of etching (lacking a better 



rather than the rule. word) deeply cutting the angles of the prisms. 



The list of species that are most sought after Other forms noticed here are flat crystals and 



by collectors is not confined to any one localiiy crystals in almost endless variety of contortion, 



or county but distributed over the entire stale, giving the impression at a glance that they are 



no single locality furnishing a large proportion, alterations from some oblique mineral. The 



I will say further that it is not my intention quartzes of this section contain a great deal of 



to write a history of the minerals or mineral some kind of gas for when s ruck a siharp blow 



localities of North Carolina, but to speak in as with a hammer they break with, a sharp noise 



plain a manner as possible of only such species like the crack of a pistol. 



as will interest the average collector and shall oh- The topography of the county differs but 



serve no regular sequence in their order of little if any from the rest of the quartz sections 



presentation. of the state. Mostly low rolling hills growing 



Thus prefaced I will take from the fact of bolder as you approach the foot-hills of the 



its being the most abundant and highly devel- South Mountains on the west. The rocks are 



oped vhe quartz group. metamorphic, gneissoid and granitic with an 



QUARTZ. abundance of the various schists. But as fine 



The quartzes of this state have been handled as are the quartzes of Alexander county their 



in a small way by a few northern dealers for value has been totally eclipsed by those of the 



several years. As long ago as 1868 material so called ''Lincoln county"' belt. 



>va= collected in this section and in Burke Co, This section, which does not, however, lie in 



