The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1900-07-14

HDjamond Bunf :
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Search For the Source of the Gems
Already Found.


Already Found
Science is constantly striving to de-
termine what precious stones lie hide n
in the soil of this country. Thus far
| the returns have been inconsiderabIe,
! except along a few lines, notably the
! turquoise and garnet mining industries.
! Nevertheless, score of species of pre-
cious stones have from time to time
been discovered in various parts of the
/ United States, and mineraIogists are
/ not without expectation that the nat
/ ural wealth of the country will ona
| day receive vast accessiOns from crys-
| tai treasures that are now scattered
amid worthless gravel and dirt. Some
| thing of the progress of discovery in
| this line is told in the recent pamph-
| let published by the department of the
| interior from the twtntB first annual
report of the United States geological
! survey, under the misleading title,
1.-THE Production of Precious Stones in
I the United States in Notwithstanding
! because the pamphlet does not treat Of
| the production of these gems. which
took place thousands Of years ago. but
Of their discovery. George F. Kunz,
the leading authority on precious
stones in this country. is the author.
Few persons know that diamonds
have been found in the United States.
The OUTPUT has been so small as to be
unimportant from a commercial view
point. but it opens up great possibiIf-
ties TbaSe pauos have haar found ~,
the morainal belt in Michigan, Wiscon-
sin and Ohio. In all seventeen of these
stones have been found. one of which.
the louisville, Wis, stone weighed
twentY-one carats, and another found
in 1879 in Ohio by two little girls is a
pure and brilliant stone of six carats.
Mr.. Kunz quotes Professor Hobbs. who
has made an exhaustive study of the
diamond belt and believes that the
gems were deposited by glaciers on
the line of the noraine of the later ice
sheet. The area of distribution is 600
miles long by 200 wide. and of eight
localities where discoveries have been
made six are within an area 200 miles
square, the center of which is NGlwau-
kee. Professor Hobbs believes that for
every diamond found there are a thou
sand left in the drift, and he thinks it
very probable that there are unsus--
pected diamonds in collections of farm
house pebbles and curios. AT present
he is trying to rouse interest and slim
ulate search among the farmers of the
region by distributing notices to them.
Geological work has been instituted to
determine the direction of the glacial
movement in the country south Of
Hudson Bay, as it is from that region
probably that the diamonds came origi-
nally, or perhaps from Labrador.
Search will be made further eastward,
along the moraine line also, in Ohio,
Pennsylvania and New York.
A fine diamond has been found in
Tennessee. The finder was Charles
Waller of Union Crossroads. Roane
county, and the stone weighed three
carats when found. Cut, it weighed d
carat and a quarter, and its quality is
shown By the fact that it was sold for
$3.50, a price which a diamond of that
size does not bring unless of fine color
and fawIess. In the auriferous gravel
of California diamonds are occasionally
found but they are mostly small, and
their presence is revealed generally
only in fragments found after the de-
structive work of the stamp mills on
the hard pan gravel. A diamond from
Cherokee, Cal. is valued at $3.50. and a
dozen crystals have been found in the
vicinity of Placerville that are reCk-
oned to be worth from $50 to $3.50 each
A two-carat stone found at Nelson
Point, Plumas county last summer, is
not of very good color. and was sold
for SIS. 1t is fortunate for America
that the demand is not restricted by
the national supply. In 1899 the total
value of diamonds and other precious
stones imported into this country. the
greater part of the importations being
was more than $17,OO0.o0O.
Corundum in various forms is found
in the Cowee Valley in North Caro-
lima Small rubies, good specimens OF
the purplish pink garnet and consider
able corrndum NOT Of gem quality are
also found there. Extensive alteration
of corundum into non-precious forms
by hydration and combination has left
it's traces.
TT is surprising" writes a mineralo-
gist who has been studying the min
eraI deposits of the valley, ITO see the
positive evidence of the former exist
ence of hundreds of pounds weight or
ruby and other corundum where today
only few fragments or flakes re-
main