For The Hawkeye O. and O. CARE OF MINERALS.
BY W. S. BEEKMAN.
There seems to be difficulty in realizing a progress that is not in some manner dependant upon care. Care is exemplified at our several points of observation in the universe, and is realized in all things capable of advancement. Ourselves require care. Care for health, system, surroundings, character, and appearance. Among some of the many things, where, in its advancement, care greatly tends to produce a degree of perfection, equal to the amount bestowed, may be mentioned the various forms of accumulating objects for advancement. Among these forms, it will serve us at present to consider only that which has for its object-matter the accumulation of the natural chemical bodies for mineralogical study. Every one admires a prettily arranged series of rocks, and in our efforts to please both visual and intellectual senses, ever bear in mind that the direct results to be obtained are ever dependent upon the genuineness of the care bestowed.
Minerals are as much under the necessity of receiving care as is the delicate skin of an infant. Those hard and popularly considered imperishable bodies we do not exempt from the rulings of care as one would suppose. It is the first impulse that much govern our actions while working our specimens of the bed-rock. Specimens must be broken from their homes as carefully as one would exhume a mummy. Hammer and chisel must be deftly applied to the mother-rock, giving a nip here and a whack there, making every blow tell. After securing the specimen carefully protect all its friable or delicate parts. This can be done in many ways; often in emergencies where one does not care to utilize their handkerchiefs, a handful of grass applied to a projecting crystal will insure its safety while trimming for cabinet use.
Before trimming your specimen very much, consider carefully all the objectionable parts you wish to remove. As in a game of chess—you must know the positions and the effects of every move. Many times one will in a hurry glance over a rock and say: “Well, now, if that was trimmed about so it would be a good thing.” Whack goes the hammer, and crumble goes the specimen. Failing to see that there was a weak place of partial fracture of the rock, which, had it been seen, could have been protected, the specimen is destroyed, owing to the lack of care. In trimming a specimen consider what you want saved and what will be better off than on. See how it can be best shaped so as to stand easily and show what is to be admired mostly. In many instances applying the chisel to the surface in directing cleaveage planes will facilitate the improvement of the mineral at a less expense of battered material. A hard compact rock may be more easily broken by striking the stone while held in the hand, first protecting the hand by an old glove, than when laid on a hard surface. Where a stone is known to be quickly broken into fragments it may be found well to wrap the stone in stout paper, or cloth, before pounding. In this way the smaller fragments are easily obtained. Always trimming your specimens at the quarry your next attention should be the wrapping of each individual in soft paper, previous to being carried home.
[TO BE CONTINUED.]