The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1905-03-23

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skill. Therefore as it stands exempted
from the danger of imitation, should
the element of rarity persist, the noble
opal seems likely to regain the exalted
1 position it formerly held.
/ While not included in the somewhat
comprehensive list of gems set by
Moses in the breastplate of Aaron the
| high priest, or of those mentioned by
the prophets, and later by St. John the
Divine, over whose mind precious stones
appear to have exercised great imagi-
nary sway (unless Jasper, to which opal
is allied, be taken as representative of
opaD, nevertheless the opalus of the
/ Romans, opallios of the Greeks, and the
Sanscrit upaIa, has a fair claim to anti
guilty. The affection which the an
i clients entertained for this lovely gem
was unbounded. The Romans particu-
larly held 1t in great esteem. "Of all
precious stones, says Plinys '4the opal
1 is the most difficult to describe, since
it combines in one gem the beauties of
many species, the fire of the carbuncle.
i the purple Of the amethyst, the green
/ of the emerald and the yellow of the
4 tapaz. The same writer tells that the
Senator Nonius possessed a valuable
i opal, about the size Of filbert nut, OF
1 which he was extremely fond. 1t was
set In a ring, and its value, computed in
the money of to-day was twenty thou
sand pounds. AT the instance Of Mark
Antony, who, it is alleged, coveted the
| gem and wished to obtain it, Nonias
! was prescribed and preferred banish-
fment rather than surrender this treas
4 ure. In a curious old volume of the sew
enteenth century entitled "a .Lapida-
! ry,'' the author thus expresses himself:
/ THE opal is precious stone which
hath in it the bright fiery flame of the
1 carbuncle, the fine refulgent purple of
the amethyst and a whole sea Of the
4 emerald's green glory" Another
writes: ]" The tender violet of the anne
thyst. the blue Of the sapphire the
green Of the emerald, the golden yellow
of the tapaz and the flashing red Of the
| ruby appear at times in certain parts Of
the stone, crossing each other in vivid
play with an effect that is magical"
And Boetius, 1.-THE fairest and most
pleasing OF all other jewels by reason
of it's various colors."
The cause Of this play Of colors In the
/ precious opal, on which its trueness or
nobility depends, has greatly exercised
\ the scientific mind and given rise to-
many different opinions, but no entirely
| satisfactory reason has been forthcorn-
\ ing, although it has in recent times
been investigated by Sir David Brews-
ter, Sir William Crookes and Lord Ray
leigh. 2% ~
/ Opal may be regarded ais an uflcleav-
able quartz. Hardness SIS to S., specific
| gravity 2.091. When first taken out of
the earth 1t is not very hard, but by
exposure to the air Its hardness Is in
j creased. Nevertheless it always re-
mains soft stone compared with other
gems. The older mineralogists, consid-
ering this stone an unexampled marvel,
named it "oculus Mundi,'' the Eye of
/ the World. The other kinds have the
4 curious property of improving by the
warmth of the hand, which brings out
1 the brilliant tints for which the opal is
i so famed. In contrast to the hydro
plane, the remarkable gem introduced
| by Sir Walter Scott into his novel
| ANNE of Gelerstein," described as an
opal, is said to have been utterly de-
stroyed by drop of water falling upon
lit. The water, however, was holy wa
i ter, and the wearer of the jewel was
strongly suspected of demoniacal pos
/ session, a combination likely to lead to
some catastrophe.
Commercially, only three varieties Of
opal are recognized, viz, Oriental opay,
| fire opal and common opal. The term
| Oriental was given to it by the Greek
and Turkish merchants, who obtained it
| from Hungary and then carried 1t to
4 the east for the purpose of imparting to
/ it additional value under the title ORR
| entail, because gems coming from that
quarter were supposed to be superior to
others For a long period Hungary was
/ the chief locality from which precious
opal was taken, being found in the To-
| kali Esperieser Mountains, nor far from
\ Czerwenitza, the principal mines being
in the Libanka Mountain, west of Dub
4 mix. It is thought that it was from
| this district that the ancient Romans
procured their opals. More recently fine
specimens have been discovered in Mex
leo, Honduras and the Farce Islands.
| Hitherto little has been found in the
| United States, or generally throughout
North and South America, excepting
1 the two places named. 1t is to Qeens-
land anud New South Wales that the
world is now chiefly indebted for its
supplies of opals. Attention was first
directed to their occurrence In Queens
land by Mr.. Fl. w. Bond. In the west
ern interior of that colony, where the
waterceurses lead with scarcely percep-
| tible fall southwark and discharge
through the Darling river into the
Great Australian Blight, none of the me-
tallic minerals have been found. But
in those regions at detached localities
in north and south line from Eroman"
ga or opalopolis, on the, River Bulloo,
in the extreme southwest corner of the
state, to Feriaoy or, Opal Town, near
Winton, almaost in the center of the
territory, the first recorded discovery of
opal was made in 1890, when gem stone
to the value Of three thousand pounds
r7E h IT, ~ u 4