Leisure hours among the gems

by Augustus C. Hamlin

Let us follow our theme a little longer. In reviewing the fragmentary remains of the early periods of the earth’s history, the observer will admit that there has been a marked progress in even vegetable life as well as in the animal. For in the primitive ages we find the non-flowering plants were more numerous than the flowering species. Therefore, in contemplating the precedence of succession of animal and vegetable life, the thought naturally occurs to us that perhaps the most delicate and beautiful of all our flowers elate from recent geological periods.

We may also apply this hypothesis to the gems, and perhaps maintain that they too have arrived at perfection by progressive stages. The corundum, for instance, in the primitive rocks is never so pure and perfect as the nodules and crystals found in the true gem strata of recent formations. The emerald of the limestone is also incomparably above the beryls of the granites. The spinels, the chrysoberyls, the zircons, and the topazes of the gem beds are generally far superior to those found in the old crystalline rocks. There are, however, some plain exceptions to this plausible theory; and the finest of the tourmalines are found in cavities in granite ledges that appear to be of an early age.

We are also sometimes inclined to think that color in the early ages of terrestrial life was wanting in the rich hues which now deck animate nature. For of all the relics of the old geologic forms that are preserved to us their colors are either greatly faded or were at first faintly painted. Even in the tertiary division the hues are not beautiful. The shells, however, exhibit a trace of the pearly hue of the nacre, which may once have shone as brightly as in the modern mollusca. Some of the fossil fishes display a gleam of the silver tints that now glisten on the sides of the living species. Fossil corals preserved in the marble, however, have retained the beauty of form but lost all delicacy of hue, if they ever possessed any. Still, absence of bright and glowing colors of the animals in a fossil state is by no means conclusive evidence that nature was then devoid of external decoration. For we may see on every side how the beautiful hues of animal and vegetable life may fade and disappear altogether on the suspension of vital activity; and also how the process of solidification and petrifaction may modify or even obliterate all traces of organic color. It is, however, a fact that the richest-colored gems and minerals are found near the surface of the earth, as though they required the direct influence of the solar rays, like the finest varieties of colored coral and the gorgeous flowers of vegetation.

In reflecting upon these phenomena, and in seeking for the causes that led to the creation of the diamond, and sifting down the evidence that science has patiently brought to light, we are naturally led to philosophic musings. It is a singular reflection that much of our commercial greatness is derived from luxuriant vegetations of early ages of the earth’s history. How much pleasure, how many of the comforts of civilization and even the necessities of life, do we owe to the extinct fauna of by-gone ages! Even invalid man, seeking to restore the exhausted fountains of his shattered nature in the waters of some of the sulphur springs, quaffs the life-restoring principles from the mineral and animal débris of the lower ocean of the old red sandstone. Here, then, is a happy adaptation of the vague and empty theory of transmigration of the ancients,—the metempsychosis of Empedocles. Certain elements imprisoned in the earth for ages return again at last to reanimate exhausted man and improve his social life. The same agency in recent times, and by natural though mysterious laws, has produced from similar materials the gem, which seems to be quite as necessary for the superficial wants of mankind as gold or silver.

In studying the earth’s history and examining the successive phases of its development, we are insensibly led to the idea that all these stages, seemingly progressive, never retrograde, were for a definite purpose, if not for the exclusive benefit of mankind. For it is only just before the introduction of man that some of the highest orders of vegetation, such as the Rosaceæ, appear on the earth. There is certainly a marked intent in the appearance of the pear, the apple, plum, cherry, peach, and other fruits, with the true grasses, late in the tertiary period.

We may also trace this suggestive progression in the development of even insect life. In the Silurian age the hum of the insect was unheard; and it was not until the oölitic period that this form of animal life appeared. A fossil gem—the amber—reveals the time of the birth of the insect dearest to man; and it was not until the eocene change that the earth heard for the first time

“The soft murmur of the vagrant bee.”

May we not also place in the same category of possible intents the late deposition of the diamond? It is not so very strange, after all, when we come to consider the vast field that lies within the range of the argument.

CHAPTER V.
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES, ETC.

Before explaining, or rather attempting to explain, the phenomena of some of the prominent physical properties of the mineral, it is proper that we should give a description of its forms and its natural appearance as it is taken from the mines, so that our reader may become more familiar with the subject. We will not, however, venture very far among the dry details of crystallography, even if it be a subject of great interest to the student in science. The stone which so readily attracts the eye by its dazzling splendors after it has received a definite form and polish from art, is seldom attractive to the view unless it occurs in a rare and perfect form of crystallization. Even then, in this primitive state it exhibits none of the rainbow play of color which makes the stone so celebrated and so beautiful. In reality, in these rare conditions it is seldom if ever so lustrous and pleasing to the sight as crystals of many other minerals. In general, the diamond is so obscure in its attractions that practised eyes are required for its search.