SAPPHIKE IN UNITED STATES. 
105 
liexagon is parallel to the base. In a few of the transparent crystals 
this hexagon was observed as a Aveb in the midst of the crystal, the 
plane of the web being parallel to the basal plane. 
GEORGIA. 
There are a few localities in Georgia wliere a ruby-red corundum 
has been found, but none of these have as yet produced a stone of any 
real merit as a ruby gem. At the Laurel Creek mine, Rabun County, 
at the Hiawassee mine, ToAvns County, and from near Caldwell, 
Union County, pink to ruby-red corundum of good color has been 
found, some of which is translucent to semitransparent, making very 
handsome mineral specimens. 
MONTANA. 
Montana has, next to North Carolina, been the most productive 
State in rubies, and it is the first State in the total value of its pro- 
duction of corundum gems, of which 
the oriental sapphire constitutes the 
largest amount. Rubies of a rich red 
color have been found in the gravels 
of the upper waters of Rock or Stony 
Creek, Granite County, and in less 
amount in the gravels of Cottonwood 
Creek, Deerlodge County. The rubies 
are found in these gravels associated 
Avith other colors of corundum, and 
they form but a very small percent- 
age of the total corundum gems ob- 
tained. The majority of the gems 
found at these two localities are pale- 
green, yellow, pink, or from bluish- 
white to nearly colorless. 
Fig. 14. — Corundum crystal, showing 
• concentric hexagons on basal plane. 
SAPPHIRE. 
NORTH CAROLINA. 
No corundum gems were found in the United States until the 
opening of the Corundum Hill (corundum mine at Cullasagee, Macon 
County, N. C, in 1871. This corundum is mined for abrasive pur- 
poses, but in certain parts of the deposit crystal corundum is occa- 
sionally found that is of a decided gem character, and, again, many 
of the fragments of the corundum have certain portions that are 
transparent. A number of very handsome dark-blue sapphires from 
this mine are in the United States National Museum, one of which 
weighs a carat.« 
Kunz, G. F., fienis and Precious Stones of North America, 1890, p. 40. 
