272 THE CAROLINA MOUNTAINS 
in color, the dark spots often of the deepest purple. 
These gems, thus offered open-handed by nature, 
were equal, it is said on authority, to those found in 
any country of the globe. 
Beautiful smoky and citron green quartz crystals 
abound in the Black Mountain region, and the 
choicest form of quartz, rock crystal, also occurs 
abundantly there, masses of several hundred pounds' 
weight having been found. From these have been 
cut many beautiful objects by the Tiffany lapidar- 
ies of New York, among them a crystal ball five 
inches in diameter. One mass of rock crystal was 
found encrusted with a green substance so that when 
polished it looked like moss under clear water. 
Aside from those gems, whose very names have so 
long exercised a spell over the human heart, there 
are found here many lovely crystals bearing un- 
familiar scientific names, but from which beautiful 
jewels can be cut; and while few of us will be fort- 
unate enough to find priceless stones in the crystal 
streams that sparkle under the laurel, or stumble 
upon a newly disclosed amethyst mine, any one with 
a fondness for crystals and a little knowledge of how 
to proceed can gather many a lovely, unfading flower 
of the rocks to recall the days of happy wandering 
over the oldest and most gracious mountains in the 
world. 
Besides the crystals there are many rare and beau- 
tiful minerals not only valuable to the collector, but 
available for purposes of art, among which quartz 
yields a lovely fawn and salmon-pink chalcedony, as 
