The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1922-09-26
BERYL MOUNTAIN
SOLD TO ACTRESS
Lodges Worked More than go Years Ago
in AcwOrth. y. H.. 10 Be Re-Opened
for Research and Study.

BeryI hill or Beryl mountain, in Ac.
worth. y H.. or Williams ledge as it is
sometimes called by the townspeople
from which have been taken some of the
largest and richest colored crystals and
masses of beryl in the world, according
/ TO various authorities, has recently been
sold TO Miss Jane Egbert, n New York
actress with the II. 4. Wood Production
company. She proposes to open its
lodges and pockets for the research and
study of scientists, according to two
New York newspapermen, L. j. Donovan
and +. ]. kenney, who recently have
been in AcwOrth.
Inquiries regarding the beryl found in
this mountain verify the accounts
brought by Messrs. Donovan and Kenney
(which are familiar enough to people III
he towns of Acworth, NARROW. Alstead
and neighboring Sullivan county towns.
The lodges on the mountain that have
been opened up were worked more than
60 years ago by James Bowers, who died
in 1853. and perhaps by Shepard Bow
ers, his son. in Newport. 1t was not to
obtain beryl that they were operated
however. but to get out a specially fine
EQUALITY of pure white quartz of (which
there are immense deposits in the noun
tain and which in those days was used to
make the purest flint glass, almost rival
ing Bohemian glass. 1t is in this quartz
that the beryl is found embedded and the
specimens and compact masses secured
have attracted the attention of mIneralO-
gists and scientists. \ single crystal.
said to be one of the largest in the
world, measuring y by IS inches, was
sent to the royal museum in Vienna,
Austria, where it still leads the beryl col
lection.
The late J. Pierpont Morgan procured
fine specimens of AcwOTth beryl and
placed them in what is now Il part of the
Metropolitan museum in New York. The
largest and some of the finest aquama-
rine specimens in the national museum in
Washington are from the Acworth noun
tain and many like specimens are found
in the leading museums in this country
and in Europe. Besides the quartz and
bpryl found. black tourm0line. white soda
Ifeldspar coumbte and asbestos were
taken out.
Whether the pure white quartz, which
was the commercial product of Berry,
mountain. will again become of value 81
that further excavations will be made
and beryi taken out in that way, remains
to be seen. 1t is noted that not far from
Acworth. in Alstead. are the mica mines
and the big lodges of feldspar now being
used 50 extensively the latter: IKE the
Acworth quartz, being of superior white
ness and purity. The feldSpar is used IN
making the finest pottery, and especially
for white wares. just as the quartz was
used to make flint glass.
The best way to go to Beryl mountain
is to drive to South AcwOrth village, by
way of NARROW Junction or Cold river
and the Brown road. inquiring at the
village about the road TO the mountain
which leads from there to the south. The
distance is about a mile and the road to
the mountain base is not bad. The
mountain is an unmistakable sharp, out
ropping ledge rising some POO feet above
Cold river. the white quartz being promI
nent especially on the side where it was
worked. which Is away from the road
and where large excavations remain.
Beryl includes Il number of varieties
u among them emeraIds, acquamarines ant
y golden beryls. Chrysnbel is a distinc
Snecies These gems differ in color bu
u are much harder than others. They arr
4 a silicate of aluminium and gluclnum
Beryl differs in hardness from 10 to
4 in a scale of which quartz is Z. 1t crys
n talizes in a hexagonal system. usually II
! Six-sided prisms. often pointed.
Beryls do not have the brilliancy O
] emeraids and are dependent upon theil
body coIors They are often cloudy anc
of no value as gems The colorS are
8 golden, blue acquamraine and green
q shading to the emeralds, pink and white