450 SYSTEMATIC DESCRIPTION OF PRECIOUS STONES 



water, and points to the resemblance these bear to the pittings of meteorites produced by 

 the enormous resistance the latter encounter in their passage through the air. 



The mode of occurrence of moldavite throws no light on the origin of the stone, for its 

 presence in situ in any solid rock has never been unquestionably established. It is found 

 loose in the ground in pieces which never reach the size of a man's fist, and which are more 

 or less elliptical or flat and disc-like in form. The surface is wrinkled and scarred as if the 

 material had been corroded, and so dark, dull, and rough that the transparency, delicate 

 colour, and strong vitreous lustre of the substance would never be suspected. 



The Bohemian localities for moldavite have been known for a long period. One of 

 these is the district between Moldauthein and Budweis, in the south of the country, on the 

 Moldau river (hence the name moldavite). Pebbles of the substance are found in the 

 alluvial deposits of the river or are turned up with the soil in tilling the fields. The district 

 between Prabsch, Klein-Horozek, and Zahoritsch is specially rich, but more so formerly than 

 now. The stones found here are collected and sold to the lapidaries. Radomilitz, west of 

 Budweis, is another locality, but the stones found there are lighter in colour than those met 

 with elsewhere in Bohemia, and, moreover, are stated to occur in the ground-moraine of 

 an ancient glacier of the glacial period. This mode of occurrence is by no means an 

 unquestionable fact ; but if it were, it would negative the theory that moldavite is an 

 artificial product. The substance is found under the same conditions as in Bohemia at 

 Kotschichowitz, near Trebitsch, in the Iglawa valley, and at other places in Moravia. 



Rounded pebbles, measuring as much as an inch across and quite similar to the 

 Bohemian bottle-stone, but less finely coloured, are found at Santa P'e in New Mexico, U.S.A. 

 In this case the pebbles are, without doubt, a natural obsidian. 



Moldavite is not extensively employed for ornamental purposes, and in former years 

 was still less used. Cut stones are not worth more than sixpence a gram. The forms of 

 cutting are those employed for oHvine, namely, the table-stone and step-cut ; the large front 

 facet is often cut with a slightly convex instead of a plane surface. 



In spite of the abundance and cheapness of moldavite, the substance is frequently 

 imitated in an artificially prepared glass, which, when cut, can scarcely be distinguished 

 from the true stone. It is easy, however, to distinguish moldavite itself from the green 

 gem-stones it may resemble, namely, green tourmaline, chrysolite, idocrase, and demantoid, 

 or even emerald. The specific gravity of each of these stones is appreciably higher than 

 that of moldavite, and they all sink in liquid No. 4 (sp. gr. = 2-65), in which moldavite 

 floats. Moreover, they are all harder than moldavite and, with the single exception of 

 demantoid, are doubly refracting and dichroic, so that it is a simple matter to avoid 

 mistaking bottle-stone for any of these precious stones. 



