Chicago eagle. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1889-19??, 1893-01-14
AMERICAN PRECIOUS STONES.
The Annual Production in This
Country Is Small.

Country Is Small.
The United States is the foremost pro
ducer of valuable minerals of all the
countries of the world. In gold and
silver, iron and coal, copper and lead, it
is pre-eminent. Its yield of other metals
of economic Importance is considerable,
and i'll building stones of all descriptions
it is inexhaustibly rich When it comes
to gems and precious stones, however,
our country makes but poor show.
In the census report ON minerals for
1890 will be found an interesting section
on American precious stones, by George
F. Kunz, the eminent expert of the
house of Tiffany. From Mr. Kunz's
statistics it is learned that the total pro
duction of precious stones in the United
States for 1899, the year in which the
census enumeration was made, was to
the amount of $1SS, coo, after being cut
and polished to the extent of S107 900
used Tor lewelry, and $S1 900 sold to
museums and collectors of curiosities.
OF these stones few were of the finer
sorts. There were no diamonds and no
rubies. There were sapphires to the
amount of So, 700 but very deficient in
color There were turquoises,to the en-
tent of $24, 900 worth. The rest of the
stones were of commOner varieties. The
sanphires were all found in Montana and
a.. the turquoses in New Mexico.
Plainly, our country, as, % producer of
precious gems, is far beyond India, which
has furnished diamonds, rubies, topazes
and beryls in the greatest numbers from
the earliest times. 1t is far behind Bra
I'll, which has fora century past afforded
large numbers of diamonds. 1t is far
behind South Africa, which is now she
chief source OF diamonds 1t is far be-
hind the Russian region of the Ural
Mountains, which has long been an inn
portant source of supply of sapphires,
rubies, topazes, and beryls, Some pretty
emeralds and other stones, but in small!
quantities, have been found in North
Carolina, but in statistical tabulation
they cut but small figure.
In reference to diamonds, Mr. Kun7
reports that while few have from time
to time been obtained in California.
North Carolina, Georgia, Virginia anc
Wisconsin, the finds have been rare and
always accidental No indications exist
which would justify any systematic
search for them, although the circum.
stances and conditions under which they
have been found resemble those existing
in the diamond regions of India and
Brazil, but utterly unlike those Of the
South African diamond district, where
the gems are obtained from blue clay
which seems to have resulted from the
decomposition of a blush volcanic
rock
The Indian and Brazilian stones are
found in gravel of agate, jasper and
other quartzes, which are the debris OF
crystalline rocks, and it is in this sort of
gravel that the few American diamonds
have been found. The entire finds 81
these stones are summed up as fol
lows: One octahedral diamond oil
good quality weighing 247j carats,
and when cut II "a carats, at Richmond
Va, in 1854 about 100 diamonds
weighing from one-fourth of a carat t.
five carats, in the North Carolina and
Georgia localities; about 200 diamond,
of from one-half to four carats each, IN
California; 2 diamonds in Indiana
small ones, none as heavy as one carat,
in Pierce county, Wisconsin; and a few
isolated stones from Idaho, Arizona, Ar
kansas and Adair county, Ky.
This is a very meager showing, but il
demonstrates that diamonds exist in the
country. But it is evident that we are
too far north for any prolific yield of the
ehiefest of the precious stones The fact
seems to be that all the northern dia-
mond fields have either been covered W
or swept bodily away by the vast and
potential influences of the Arctic drift
which is so great a puzzle to the gcolo
gists 1t wrecked or buried all the solid
lands of the Northern Hemisphere, and
so diamonds are only left untouched in
regions south of the equator beyond the
reach of the terrible invasion of moving
ice and rock which marked the glacial
age. Fl Picayunc