The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1916-10-31


covered early in the nineteenth centu-
~, when only cloudy stones of a light
color were obtained.
Unlike some green stones, the emer-
aid retains its color when heated, and
when subjected to artificial light, and
i'll this connection Pliny is quoted as
saying that neither sun nor shade, nor
yet the light of a candle caused change
in its color or lustre. 1t was supposed,
in ancient times, to be good for the
eyes, and Pliny also remarks, "there
is not gem or precious stone that so
fully possesseth the eye, and yet never
contenteth it with safety. Nay, if the
sight has been wearied and dimmed by
intensive porting upon anything else,
the beholding of this stone doth re-
fresh and restore it again While
| beneficial to human eyes, it was be-
| lieved to be fatal to the eyesight of
serpents, i'll the words of the poet
! Moore, blinded like serpents when
they gaze upon the emerald IS virgin
| blaze.
Many virtues We're once ascribed to
this stone; when Worn it was held to
/ be preservative against epilepsy and
other ailments. 1t was also valued as
charm against evil spirits; while tax
en- internally, it was claimed to have
great medicinal value.
The crystals are simple in form;
merely hexagonal prisms attached at
one end to the matrix, with usually
a flat face at right angles to its axis
on the other end. They are invariably
fiawed, so much so that ga flawless
emerald has become a proverbial ex-
| preston for unattainable perfection
The largest single crystal, said to weigh
n1ne and three-quarters ounces, is in
the possession of the Duke of Devon
shire, but the division of mincralogy of
the National Museum, at Washington,
has an excellent specimen from Story
| Point, Alexander county, North Caro-
lima, which weighs eight and three
quarters ounces, or over 1900 carats,
land is the largest ever found in the
| United States.
Among the specimens is a section of
an uncut crystal from Muzo, Colombia
South America, collected by DIR. Joseph
+. Pogue, former assistant curator in
the division of mineralogy of the Ma
tional Museum, and now associate pro-
fessor of geology at Northwestern uni
verSity. This contains flaw composed
of carbonaceous matter which appears
III cross section as a six-rayed star cen
tering at the axis of the crystal in a
small hexagonal prism. 1t is very
unusual form and is believed to be
unique in museum specimens.
At the September meeting of the
American Institute of Mining Engi-
neers DR.. Pogue made a technical re-
port on the emerald deposits at Muzo.
He says in part:
The Muzo emerald deposits are stu
lated in the western foothills of the
eastern branch of the Colombian Andes
and are distant about 60 miles in a
direct northwesterly line from Bogota,
the capital of Colombia. They embrace
about eight open cuts, closely grouped
III portion of a steep-walled valley
situated about 500 meters above sea
level, in an intensely tropical and IN
healthful country. The early history of
the Muzo deposits is buried in the re.
mote past; they Were worked long be-
fore the Spaniards first set foot in the
New World.
Muzo formed one of not more than
three sources of the precious green
stone which the Spaniards found so
widely distributed in northwestern
South America; a product which shared
with gold the role of melting the Gu
pidity of the invaders and enticing
them to brave the dangers of the un-
known interior. From 1897 when they
first saw them, the Spaniards spent a
great deal of effort and time in en-
deavoring to locate the source of these
great stones. But the Indians hid all
traces of emerald mining for nearly 20
years, and when the Spaniards did dis
cover the mines they discovered great
difficulties in working them The mines
are now owned and operated by the
government; but on account of certain
reasons, operations were suspended in
January l, 1913.
In this section the emerald is secured
by opencut mining. The steep slopes
of emerald formation are worked in
great terraced banks, affording benches
on which lines of Indian poems stand to
attack the bench below with long iron
crow bars. BY this method the com
lparatively soft limestone and shale are
easily broken away, without blasting,
and the emerald-bearing calcite veins
are carefully removed by hand and TAX
en- to the sorting sheds The debris
which falls down the step-like slope is
washed away by water from above, In
the sorting sheds the calcite veins are
broken by hand and the emerald erys-
tails picked out and separated into a
number of grades according to color
size, transparency, and freedom from
flaws. The product is shipped by mules
to BogOta, and from there is trans
ported to London. Work at the Muzo
mines has been very irregular, and the
record incomplete, but it is believed
that the total output would amount to
tens of millions of dollars, and that in
a single year the production runs from