Kum — New Lilac-Colored Transparent Bpodumene. 265 







Weight 



Weight 



Dimensions 







grams. 



oz, troy. 



Centimeters. 



^0. 



1. 



528-7 



17-1 



17 X 11 X 1 





2. 



528-7 



17-1 



22 X 8 X 1-6 





3. 



297- 



9-55 



19 X 5-5 X 1-5 





4. 



256-6 



8-25 



23 X 4X2 





5. 



340-5 



10-95 



13 X 6 X 2-53 





0. 



239-5 



7-70 



IS X 4X2 





7. 



1000- 



Si- 



18 X 8X3 



■ These crystals are extraordinary objects to the eye of the 

 mineralogist ; to see flat spodunienes of characteristic form, as 

 large as a man's hand, but with bright luster and perfect trans- 

 parency, and of this rich delicate pink-amethystine tint, is a 

 novel and unlooked for experience. 



The localities of these remarkable tourmalines and spodu- 

 menes are near the top of a ridge lying from a mile to a mile 

 and a half from the lepidolite ledge of the old Pala locality, 

 and separated from it by a valley some 900 feet deep. The 

 ledge in which these new minerals occur is on the west side of 

 this ridge, and has been traced for 1,200 feet in a N.W.-S.E. 

 direction. The description given of it suggests a large dike. 

 The rock is a coarse decomposed granite (pegmatite?), the 

 feldspar much kaolinized and reduced to a "red dirt," and with 

 many large quartz crystals, some of them reaching 150 pounds 

 in weight, but not clear. 



Similarly colored crystals of spodumene purporting to come 

 from Hermosillo, Mexico, were shown the author during the 

 month of December, 1902. These specimens were found at 

 what is known as the White Queen Mine, section 21, township 

 9, South Range 2, West San Bernardino, Meridan, California. 

 They are identical in habit with those from Pala, but much 

 smaller. The crystals from Pala belong to the locality ascribed 

 to them. No such spodumene crystals have ever before been 

 found anywhere. They are entirely distinct both from the 

 green variety (hiddenite) from Stony Point, Alexander County, 

 N. C, described by Dr. J. Lawrence Smith,* and from 

 the transparent yellow found in Brazil, described by Pisani,f 

 and more resemble some of the rare remnants of unaltered 

 spodumene from Branchville, Conn.:}: 



The Meridan (?) crystals were found in a deserted and 

 abandoned gold mine. The rock is an iron-stained granite, 

 and the crystals occur in a vein of quartz with gold, rutile, 

 black oxide of manganese, epidote, orthoclase, " mica," lepi- 

 dolite, cookeite and black tourmaline. The mineral was not 



*This Journal, xxi, 138, 1881. 

 f Comptes Rendus, Ixxxiv, 1509, 1877. 



:{; Brush and Dana, this Journal, xx, 257, 1880; and by Penfield, ibid., 

 p. 259. 



