The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-06-17
PRECIOUS STONES OF THE WEST.
Sapphires Found fin Montana Are Very
 Hard--Opnls Brittle.

Many precious stones found in the far Western States come to lapidary of Portland, Ore, to be cut, says a dispatch to the Indianapolis News The principal stones cut by c. NJ. Mckay, are sapphires, garnets, rubles, opals and agates. Besides these he polshes and trims large quantities of gold quartz and any amount of pebbles from the seashore and mountains. Talking of his work, Mckay said;
 'Sapphires are next to diamonds in hardness. l get a large number of these to cut, most of them coming from Montana and Ceylon. Those from the Indian isle are the most expensive, but have known people to come into my shop and pick out Montana stone in preference to the other. These stones run from white to a deep blue. Many have red and pink shades in them
 Following the sapphires in value and hardness to work are the rubies IT csc popular stones are simply red sapphires, so far as have been able to judge, after having handled hundreds of both sorts of the gems. They come from the same localities-Montana and Ceylon--but nearly all are mined in the Copper State.
 Garnets are very often brought to me for transforming from rough, ugly looking stones to pretty gems Many O. these are not worth the cutting, but one does not know this until after "the deed Is done Very often man will come in and show me stone in the rough and ask my opinion of 1t. Now, one cannot judge the true value of a gem until 1t Is cut, but make guess q to what think 1t will be, I am about as often right as wrong, for many times the stones that I did not think were worth while turn out to be beautiful gems, while others that bore promise of being fine are not worth the time spent on them. The best gar nets I receive are from Arizona and New Mexico, although many come. from Eastern Oregon. Idaho and Mon- tcna. They are not very hard to cut.
 Idaho and Eastern Oregon send a great number of opals to this city.I also get some stones from Austria and Mex ico I often find some rare beauties In those sent from Idaho and Mexico, but the finest are found in Hungary.
 "0pals are hard to cut on account fo their being so brittle. This Is why the stone became known as an unlucky one. Workmen hated to have to cut them, for often just as a job was about finished the stone would break.
 Amethyst, topaz aud crystal quartz are sent me from various parts of the United States. Most of the first are found in the Lake Superior region, while the topaz Is obtained in Rocky Mountain States. There is very little difference in the work of preparing these two gems for the market.
 Pink and green tourmalines are sent to me from Southern California, as well as the new gem, kunzte, which Is of lilac color.
 Jade Is very hard to polish This stone is the toughest known and takes what we call greasy polish. The best of this stone is found in China and New Zealand There Is 8 light, dirty locking jade found in Southern Oregon, and while 1t has the toughness of the sort from over the seas, it does not have the color, and so is valued at al- most nil.
 ''qold quartz is fixed by cutting it with a fine saw into the desired shapes. can tell the name of the mine from which any gold quartz Is obtained from Eastern Oregon or Idaho by simply looking at a sawed section of the min cra!.
 Every little while some one comes in with package under the arm He looks around to see if there is anyone about the shop other than himself Right then and there I put it down that the visitor has what he thinks is a collection of diamonds in the rough. 1 always ask the location of the claims, for the reason that get so much of this work that I may have examined haIf the rocks in the neighborhood, and could tell in minute whether there was any likelihood of diamonds being found in the collection.
 But none of these persons will tell me where they found the rocks until have reported the result of the investl- gation They are afraid I want to find the location of the diamond mine and steal 1t from them.'