THE SAPPHIRE COUNTRY 267 
crystallized corundum in the world. It must not be 
supposed, however, that this remarkable crystal, 
measuring four and a half, by two, by one and a half 
inches, and which is now in the Morgan-Bement 
Collection in New York, is what we should call an 
"emerald." If that were so, we should have the 
most precious gem on the face of the earth. For a 
gem must be transparent, and while there are in this 
crystal transparent places from which gems could be 
cut, the crystal as a whole has not realized absolute 
transparency throughout, even a crystal reaching 
perfection only at rare intervals, which is why the 
great gems are so noted, so few, and so costly. When 
we buy a gem stone we are buying the highest ex- 
pression of inorganic life, the poetry of the rocks. 
The Cullasagee corundum mine began as a gem 
mine, but since the finest gems of the rocks, like the 
most inspired fancies of the poet, are few and far 
between, the mine in time became worked princi- 
pally for corundum, which, having been unable to 
crystallize into gems, was set to sharpening and 
polishing. Not that gems are no longer found in this 
mine: many a fine one appears, like an occasional 
inspiration, from the rocks which are now valued 
principally for their lower service of utility. 
But there are other gem mines in the mountains 
to-day, one of the most remarkable lying in the valley 
of Cowee Creek, whose waters enter the Little Ten- 
nessee only a few miles north of Franklin. Here are 
found true rubies, concerning which a government 
report on this region says: "In color and brilliancy 
