98 CORUNDUM, ITS OCCURRENCE AND DISTRIBUTION. 
in a mass of cleavable corundum, often having the appearance of 
rolled pebbles when separated from the mass of corundum. 
The most important of the sapphire gems is the oriental ruby, 
which varies from rose, pinkish, dark red. and purplish to i)igeon- 
blood color, the most highly prized. The rubies are very likely to 
be flawed, and when examined maiiy of the cut stones are found to 
contain flaws of one character or another. The stones are often so 
cut that these flaws are distinguishable only by the aid of a magnify- 
ing glass. 
The finest rubies of pigeon-blood color are those found in the 
Mogok district, about 90 miles north-northeast of Mandalay, in 
upper Burma. Small but fine rubies, often, however, of a pink color 
or a purplish tint, are found at Ratnapoora, in Ceylon, and of a 
dark-red color, similar to that of a garnet, in Siam. The rubies of 
the Burma district are found in place in limestones, but the mining 
is confined almost entirely to the gravels. 
NORTH CAROLINA. 
At the Corundum Hill mine, Cullasagee, N. C. (see description, 
p. 117), various shades of ruby-gem corundum have been found. 
Two of the best rubies of good color that have ever been found at 
this mine are in Clarence S. Bement's collection. There are also 
a number of fine ones in the United States National Museum at 
A¥ashington. Many of the smaller crystals of various shades of 
pink to red are transparent near the outer surface and near their 
extremities, and from these small gems can be cut; but few that are 
worth $100 have been obtained from them. These smaller crystals 
are usually well developed and have a clean-cut form. The faces 
commonly developed on these are the base c (0001) ; the unit prism, 
m (1010) ; the unit rhombohedron, r (1011), and the pyramid, n 
(2243), more rarely observed. 
The North Carolina locality for corundum gems which has attracted 
the most attention is the tract of land between the Caler Fork of 
Cowee Creek and Mason Branch, tributaries of the Little Tennessee 
River." This tract is situated in Macon County, almost 6 miles 
north of the tow^n of Franklin. The nearest railroad station is Dills- 
boro, Jackson County, on the Southern Railway, about 12 miles to the 
east. The bottoms of the valleys are about 2,500 feet above sea level, 
and the mountain peaks or knobs in the immediate vicinity rise to a 
height of 3,000 or 3,500 feet. 
In the gravels of Caler Fork Vallej^ pieces of crystals of red corun- 
dum w^ere picked up by tlie people of the district, which led to the 
driving of two or three tunnels with the expectation of striking i\\^ 
Am. Jour. Sci., 4tli ser., vol. 8, 1899, p. 370. 
