been considered only a by-product. Up to the present
time they have never been systematically mined. In 1889 one company
took the option on four thousand acres of the river banks, and several
smaller companies have since been formed with a view of mining for
these gems alone or in connection with gold. The colors of the gems
obtained, although beautiful and interesting, are not the standard
blue or red shades generally demanded by the public.

At Corundum Hill, Macon County, North Carolina, about one hundred gems
have been found during the last twenty years, some of good blue color
and some of good red color, but none exceeding $100 in value, and none
within the past ten years.

_Beryl Gems._--Of the beryl gems (emerald, aquamarine, and yellow
beryl) the emerald has been mined to some extent at Stony Point in
Alexander County, North Carolina, and has also been obtained at two
other places in the county. Nearly everything found has come from the
Emerald and Hiddenite mines, where during the past decade emeralds
have been mined and cut into gems to the value of $1,000, and also
sold as mineralogical specimens to the value of $3,000; lithia
emerald, or hiddenite, to be cut into gems, $8,500, and for
mineralogical specimens, $1,500; rutile, cut and sold as gems, $150,
and as specimens, $50; and beryl, cut and sold as gems, $50.

At an altitude of 14,000 feet, on Mount Antero, Colorado, during the
last three years, material has been found which has afforded $1,000
worth of cut beryls. At Stoneham, Maine, about $1,500 worth of fine
aquamarine has been found, which was cut into gems.

At New Milford, Connecticut, a property was extensively worked from
October, 1885, to May, 1886, for mica and beryl. The beryls were
yellow, green, blue, and white in color, the former being sold under
the name of "golden beryl." No work has been done at the mine since
then. In 1886 and 1887 there were about four thousand stones cut and
sold for some $15,000, the cutting of which cost about $3,000.

_Turquoise._--This mineral, which was worked by the Aztecs before the
advent of the Spaniards, and since then by the Pueblo Indians, and
largely used by them for ornament and as an article of exchange, is
now systematically mined near Los Cerrillos, New Mexico. Its color is
blue, and its hardness is fully equal to that of the Persian, or
slightly greater, owing to impurities, but it lacks the softness of
color belonging to the Persian turquoise.