64 QUEENSLAND GEMS 
the European merchants decline to manufacture the 
stones, to use their own term, while at the same 
time they offer to buy all one can send at their own price, 
which is about half what they pay for Cape stones. No 
doubt, it is onlya matter of a short time before the Aus- 
tralian diamonds will be admitted to be what they really 
are—that is, good stones, and this little encouragement 
will stimulate the search for diamonds. 
So far the diamonds found have been of very good 
colour. 
SAPPHIRES.— Next to the diamond, in hardness, comes 
the corundum, which includes the sapphire, the ruby, 
the oriental amethyst, the oriental topaz, the oriental 
peridot, ete., ete. Corundum crystallizes in the six-sided 
prisms belonging to the hexagonal system, but gem 
stones are chiefly found as rolled pebbles. 
The specific gravity is 4,about. The lustre is vitreous, 
but the basal planes are occasionally pearly. 
Composition.— Alumina. 
The stone is strongly Dichroic. 
Sapphires were ficst discovered in Queensland | by 
Mr. A. J. Richardson at Anakie, in 1873, since when they 
have been found at many other places, including Stanthorpe, 
Herberton, Nanango, Logan River, Kilkivan. Johnstone 
River, etc. 
The only systematic mining for the gem is at Anakie, 
where over 400 miners are at present engaged in the 
industry. 
The Sapphires at Anakie are of every shade of blue, 
of green and of yellow, many of the yellows and greens 
are equal in quality to anything the world produces, and, 
in my opinion, no finer gems exist than the 
brilliant limpid-yellow sapphires of Queensland. They 
combine the brilliancy of the diamond with most 
beautiful shades of rich golden-yellow, and occasionally 
appearing of true orange colour. The green sapphires 
are most remarkable for the great variety of their tints, 
ranging from very pale green through all the shades of 
bronze, olive, and russet to bright green, bordering closely 
on the emerald, and continuing into the deepest luscious 
greens, and all combined with brilhancy. 
