316 SYSTEMATIC DESCRIPTION OF PRECIOUS STONES 



are often grown together in parallel position, but occasionally radial aggregates of columnar 

 crystals are met with. 



The emerald locality on the Takovaya was discovered accidentally in 1830, a peasant 

 noticing a few small green stones among the roots of a tree torn up by the wind. These 

 stones were picked up and taken to Ekaterinburg, where the gem-cutting works of the 

 Czarina, Catharine II., had been established as far back as 1755, and where the many 

 beautiful stones found in the Urals were and are still worked. After this the locality was 

 carefully examined, and a mine opened in the mica-schist. With the emeralds found in this 

 rock are associated alexandrite, phenakite, apatite, rutile, fluor-spar, and other minerals, 

 besides another variety of beryl, the pale-coloured aquamarine. Emerald was at first 

 comparatively abundant at this locality, the yield, however, has gradually fallen both in 

 quality and quantity, and the mines are by no means in full work. They have recently 

 (1900) been rented by a British company ; the venture, owing mainly to theft of stones, has 

 not, however, been successful. 



This is the only spot in the Urals at which emeralds occur in large numbers. Only 

 once has a finely coloured and transparent stone been found elsewhere, namely, in the gold- 

 sands in the valley of the stream Shemeika, in the Ekaterinburg mining district. The 

 emeralds reported by the ancients to come from Scythian lands may actually have been 

 found in the Urals, but nothing is exactly known as to their origin. 



The occurrence of emerald in the Salzburg Alps is similar to that at Takovaya ; the 

 crystals found at the former locality are, however, smaller, and their lustre less brilliant, so 

 that from a tr'ade point of view they aj'e unimportant. The spot at which they are found 

 lies above the Sedlalp (or Scillalp) on a steep wall of rock, the " Smaragd-Palfen," on the 

 east slopes of the Legbach ravine, a side branch of the Habachthal. It is 7500 feet above 

 sea-level and very inaccessible. The deposit is not rich enough to justify any extensive 

 workings ; the stones have been mined by irregular methods and at the risk of the workers' 

 lives for a long period, it is said since the time of the Romans. 



Here also the form taken by the emerald crystals is that of a hexagonal prism, and on 

 the surface of the crystals scales of mica and needles of black tourmaline are often to be 

 seen. In colour the crystals are sometimes of a fine, dark emerald-green, but more often 

 of a pale grass-green or greenish-white ; moreover, the colour is frequently irregularly 

 distributed. Perfectly transparent crystals are rare, the majority are turbid, semi-transparent, 

 or translucent to opaque, only a small proportion being fit for use as gems. The white or 

 pale-coloured crystals are usually larger and purer than the green ones. The crystals vary 

 from a line to an inch in length and from ^ to 3 lines in thickness; stones exceeding 

 these dimensions are exceptional. The mother-rock in which the crystals are embedded is a 

 finely granular mica-schist, dark-brown or greenish in colour and resembling clay-slate ; it is 

 interfoliated with a green mica-schist, which is rich, in some places, in chlorite, and in others 

 in hornblende. A crystal from this locality is shown in its matrix in Plate XII., Fig. 2. 

 Iron-pyrites occurs in association with the emeralds. The finest and largest stones are said 

 to be found in comparatively thin veins of mica with a thickness of about 1 to 3 

 inches. 



Besides the locality described above, there are a few other places in the neighbourhood 

 at which emeralds are found ; none, however, are of any importance. 



Among other European emerald localities we may briefly mention Eidsvold, on the 

 southern end of Mjosen lake in Norway. The crystals, which are here embedded in granite, 

 are nearly all turbid and pale in colour, and are therefore not, as a rule, cut as gems. 



All emerald localities other than those which have been mentioned are unimportant, 



