Evening star., 1901-05-25
AMERICAN OPALS.
Remarkably Fine Ones Now Being
Mined in the Northwest.

From the Philadelphia Post.
Some of the finest opals in the world are
now being mined in Washington. Oregon
and Idaho. In the last named state some
remarkable beautiful specimens have been
obtained from a bed of volcanic ashes, near
Moscow, and thousands of dollars worth
of gems have already been taken out. The
precious material is supposed to have been
deposited by water when the rocks were
still hot and masses Of cinder. when broken
open, reveal the stones, many of which
are of the quality known as noble opal.
This kind of opal is whitish, translucent
and shot through with small and brilliant
CLEANS of all the colors of the rainbow
Gem experts say that the colors described
are due to myriads of minute cracks in the
body of the stone, the edges of which re-
fleet the light at different angles. Similar
tints may be obtained by partially fractur-
ing a chunk of glass with a hammer Re
Gently a German chemist. by evaporating
ether from silica, has obtained beautiful
specimens resembling opals and showing
all of the exquisite hues.
That opals hardly deserve their unlucky
reputation is indicated by the escape of a
big jewelry establishment in New York
few years ago from fire which, while
destroying all the rest of the building in
which the jewelry establishment was
housed left its quarters and stock untOuCh-
ed Notwithstanding the fact that the firm
had exhibition at the time one of the
greatest collections of opals in the world.
one of the stones III the collection was the
great Hope opal. which is said to have been
an ornament of a Persian shrine in the
seventeenth century. 1t is oval in shape,
an inch long and represents the SUM- with
full face carved on its surface, the rays
being supplied by an antique gold setting.
a certain senator of ancient Rome named
Nonnus had opal big hazel
nut, which Mark Antony coveted, but it's
owner would not give ii up, preferring exile
with his treasure. The stone. indeed, was
the kohinoor of those days, though it
would not now be valued highly in all
probability. 1t was considered to be worth
a sum which We should now estimate as
500. .ovo. but in that epoch, the art of dia
mond cutting being as yet not understood,
Opals were greatly priced because they
were the only stones that refracted light
in brilliant cOlors. Besides, opals We're
scarce then, whereas nowadays the mines
are more actively worked and the produc-
ton is proportonately greater.
1t is said that the opal was not consid-
cred unlucky in England until the notion
was started there by the publication of
Anne of GeierStein. On the contrary, 1t
was believed by the ancients to render it's
posSeSsor lOvable and to beStow the gift
of invisibility. To jewellers, however, it is
liable to prove unfortunate, for the reason
that fire stone will sometimes split in
two while being ground. Owing to their
peculiar structure opals easily crack and
1T is not advisable to sit in front of an
open fire with a ring containing one Of
these gems.
Masses of fireless. reddish. yellow and
brown opal have been found recently at
Queretaro, Mexico Not long ago this ma
terial could be bought for small price by
the ounce, but now it is cut into gems and
sold for several dollars a carat. Being very
Soft-less hard, in fact, than ordinary
giass-it does not stand wear very well.