CORUNDUM (SAPPHIRE): OCCURRENCE IN KASHMIR 289 



by washing. The dark-brown tourmaline, mentioned above as being present in the granite 

 veins, is also found in these secondary deposits. 



The fine blue colour of the sapphires of this locality first attracted the attention of the 

 inhabitants, who, not knowing the value of the stones often used them for striking fire. 

 They were so abundant at first that large numbers were collected by the natives and sold to 

 the gem merchants of Simla and Delhi, who, supposing them to be blue quartz or amethyst, 

 purchased them very cheaply. When their true nature became known many expeditions 

 were sent out to the Zanskar range with the object of collecting as many of these valuable 

 stones as possible. The prices, of course, rose, and very quickly reached the figure at which 

 sapphire is usually sold, namely, about £20 per ounce. Later on the stones fell again in 

 value owing to the large number which were put on the market. Soon the Maharajah of 

 Kashmir, in whose dominions the deposit is situated, began to interest himself in the matter. 

 Those persons who had already found stones were allowed to retain them, but any further 

 search could only be made by duly licensed individuals, who had to pay for the privilege. 

 This arrangement still holds good. 



The sapphires found in the Zanskar range are frequently in well-developed crystals, of 

 the forms shown in Fig. 53, e to i. Numerous dark-brown or green tourmalines of small 

 size are often observed enclosed in, or growing on the surface of, the crystals of sapphire. 

 The crystals are sometimes very large, specimens suitable for cutting having been found 

 measuring 5 inches in length and 3 inches in thickness, while a few are said to have attained 

 a length of a foot. Irregular giains and fragments of the gem are frequently met with, but 

 many of these are probably due to the fracture of crystals during their extraction from the 

 mother-rock. The stones found in the loose weathered material on the floor of the valley 

 are more or less rounded, showing that they have been transported some distance by running 

 water. Some are of considerable size, weighing 100 or even 300 carats. 



The crystals of sapphire are often bluish-white or bluish-grey, but specimens of a finer 

 and richer colour are also frequently found. Single crystals often show a difference of colour 

 in different portions ; thus the centre of a crystal may be of a fine blue colour, and the two 

 ends colourless. The majority of the stones found here possess, wholly or in part, a milky 

 cloudiness ; silkiness of lustre is also a common fault. Only transparent and finely-coloured 

 stones are valuable as gems. Large cloudy crystals often have a small portion clear and 

 transparent, which is carefully cut away by the lapidary and transformed into a gem. The 

 yellow, brown, and red varieties of corundum are rare at this locality. 



These mines are not the only places in this remote region where sapphires worth cutting 

 have been found. At some distance away, but still in the same neighbourhood, are several 

 places at which sapphire occurs under exactly similar conditions as far as is known. Thus, 

 stones, which were not at first recognised as sapphires, were brought down from the Sacha 

 Pass to the gem-market at Delhi, and others have been found in the gneiss and mica-schist 

 of the upper Raini valley, below the Hamta Pass in Kulu, Punjab, as well as at other 

 places. 



All varieties of precious corundum — ruby, sapphire, " oriental topaz," " oriental 

 emerald," &c. — are found in the United States of North America, being specially 

 abundant in two particular regions. The first of these regions includes the western portions 

 of North Carolina and of South Carolina and extends into Georgia and Alabama. Almost 

 all the precious corundum found in this region comes from Macon County in North 

 Carolina, where the crystals, which are usually well developed, are enclosed in an olivine-rock 

 (dunite). The occurrence of corundum in rocks other than dunite in North Carolina, and 

 specially at Cowee Creek in Macon County, has already been dealt with under ruby. In 



