QUARTZ (AMETHYST) 485 



57° 40 ' N. and longtitude 30° 37 ' E. of Pulkova (the Russian observatory). Here amethyst 

 is found, often just beneath the turf, in the drusy cavities of quartz-veins of no great size 

 running through weathered gi-anite. As already mentioned it accompanies beryl and topaz, 

 which also occur in nests and veins in the granite, though never in the same cavity with 

 amethyst, being always at a much greater depth, so that the collection of these stones is 

 attended with more difficulty. In this district 

 at the present time about 140 pounds of 

 amethyst, 15 pounds of beryl and topaz, 

 and more than 200 pounds of gold-quartz 

 is annually collected. 



The industry is carried on preferably in 

 winter, when it affords employment to 150 

 or 200 persons, the number of persons em- 

 ployed in the summer not exceeding twenty- 

 five. The mines are the property of the 

 Crown ; there are about seventy-five of them, 

 but only nine are at present worked. Ac- 

 cording to their position, which is shown in 

 the accompanying map (Fig. 87), they fall 

 into three groups, namely : (1) mines about 

 Mursinka ; (2) the Alabashka mines on the 

 stream of this name ; (3) the mines on the 

 Ambirka stream, also known as the Sara- 

 pulskaya mines. The mines east of the 

 rivers Alabashka and Shilovka, especially 

 those near Sisikova and Mursinka, yield 

 amethyst principally, while from those which 

 lie between the villages of Upper and of 

 Lower Alabashka and near Yushakova and 

 Sarapulskaya topaz and beryl are more ex- 

 clusively obtained, the two last mentioned being localities for red tourmaline (rubellite) 

 also. The precious stones found in this region are for the most part cut in Ekaterinburg, 

 and many remain in the country. A certain proportion, however, find their way into 

 western Europe by way of Nizhniy Novgorod, where great cosmopolitan fairs are held. 

 Generally speaking, Uralian amethysts are pale in colour and patchy, but among them 

 one sometimes meets with specimens of a deep violet colour comparable with the finest of 

 stones from Brazil and Ceylon. 



The chief sources for the supply of amethyst are the Urals, Brazil, Uruguay, and 

 Ceylon. Other localities are of but little interest or importance ; the mineral is found, for 

 example, usually in crevices in gneiss, at several places in the Alps, among others in the 

 Zillerthal, Tyrol, a locality which formerly yielded material fit for cutting. Also in veins of 

 metallic ores at Schemnitz in Hungary ; while material suitable for cutting often occurs in 

 Spain with quartz of other colours, Carthagena in province Murcia, and Vich in Catalonia, 

 being mentioned as localities. At the former locality amethyst occurs in water-worn 

 pebbles as it does in Ceylon. Fine crystals have been found in Corn^^•all, also near Cork 

 and on Achill island, Co. Mayo, translucent crystals up to 8 or 10 inches in length having 

 been found at the last named locality. In the Auvergne, at a spot 40 kilometres from 

 Clermont, amethyst was mined by the Spaniards about 150 years ago, and the mines here 



Fig. 87. Occurrence of amethyst near Mursinka 

 in the Urals. 



