THE GARNET GROUP (PYROPE): OCCURRENCE IN BOHEMIA 357 



freedom from enclosures of every individual stone is unparalleled among other precious 

 stones. Moreover, the transparency is rarely impaired by fissures, as is the case with other 

 garnets. Wlien heated, pyrope behaves like almandine and becomes black and opaque ; on 

 cooling again it recovers to the full its original ti-ansparency and colour, which is not the 

 case with almandine. 



As to its mode of occurrence, pyrope is always found in olivine-rocks or in serpentine, 

 an alteration product of the farmer. It occurs embedded in these rocks as irregular grains, 

 among many other places at Petschau, in Bohemia, and Zoblitz, in Saxony, from which 

 locality come the specimens represented in Plate XIV., Fig. 5. In collecting pyrope places 

 are sought where the serpentine is completely weathered to a loose earthy material. The 

 grains of garnet, being little affected by the weathering process, lie scattered loosely 

 through this material, from which they can be separated with little trouble. Such are the 

 conditions under which pyrope occurs in the north of Bohemia, where it is specially 

 abundant, and from whence it is almost exclusively obtained. This variety of garnet, at 

 the present time so much admired, occurs nowhere else in just the same manner, and is 

 hence described as Bohemian garnet. The occurrence has given rise to an important 

 industry in northern Bohemia, where now are cut not only garnets found in Bohemia itself, 

 nor only pyrope, but garnet of all kinds from all parts of the woi'ld, from the Zillerthal, 

 from India, Ceylon, Asia Minor, Australia, the United States, Greenland, &c., and in 

 addition all other precious stones with the single exception of diamond. 



The garnet-cutting works of Bohemia are very old-established and have seen many 

 vicissitudes. After a period of decay, the industry received a fresh impetus through the 

 establishment of baths at Carlsbad, Teplitz, and other places. Thousands of persons from 

 all parts of the world were attracted there to benefit by the waters, and many carried away 

 with them as souvenirs of their visit pretty articles of jewellery set with Bohemian garnets. 

 The increased demand so created led to their becoming an important article of export. 

 The importance of this particular industry may be judged from the fact that at the present 

 time in Bohemia there are 3000 men engaged in garnet-cutting, some hundreds of garnet- 

 drillers, about 500 goldsmiths and silversmiths, and some 3500 working jewellers. The 

 collecting of garnets employs some 350 or 400 persons, so that, including the many 

 persons whose work is indirectly connected with the industry, there must be between 9000 

 and 10,000 persons gaining their livelihood by labour connected with the working of this 

 precious stone. 



There are a few cutting works at Prague, but many more in the neighbourhood 

 between Reichenberg and Gitschin, of which those at Rovensko, Semil, Sobotka, and 

 Lomnitz may be mentioned. The centre of the industry, however, is at Turnau on the 

 Iser, and here a Government school, at which the working of precious stones is taught, has, 

 been established. There are a few cutting-works on the German side of the border, at 

 Warmbruim, in Silesia, for example, and other places. 



In the district where cutting is carried on, garnets, though known to occur, are not 

 abundant ; they have been found, for example, at Neu-Paka, a little to the east of Gitschin, 

 where the few crystals of pyrope hitherto found in Bohemia were met with. The material 

 for the cutting- works is obtained almost exclusively, however, from the neighbourhood of 

 Teplitz, Aussig, and Bilin, in the Bohemian Mittelgebirge, some distance to the west. The 

 garnet-bearing deposit covers an area of over seventy square kilometres and the mineral is 

 abundant over an area of about one-tenth of this. The principal localities are, among 

 others, Stiefelberg, near Meronitz, also the neighbourhood of Chodolitz, Dlaschkowitz, 

 Podsedlitz, Chrastian, Tremschitz, Starrey, Schiippenthal, Leskai, Triblitz, Jetschan, 



