When this mineral occurs in coarse hexagonal prisms, with or without faces on the ends, it is known as beryl; when the crystals are clear and perfect and of a dark-green color, they are of gem value and are termed emerald; when of a light-green color, they are aquamarine; and when bright-yellow in color, they are the golden beryl. There is little difficulty in determining beryl, for only apatite occurs in such crystals, and is green, and this latter mineral has a hardness of only 5. There is an imperfect basal cleavage.
Ordinary beryl is fairly common in granites of the pegmatite sort, and less common in gneisses and mica-schists. This type often furnishes crystals of large size, up to two and three feet in diameter.
Beryl which is free from cracks and inclosures, so it can be used as a gem, is so rare, that the emerald has a value above that of the diamond, and second only to the ruby. It is one of the gems with a long history, having been quarried on the west coast of the Red Sea at least 1650 B.C. by the Egyptians. To early people it had a power to quicken the prophet instinct and made the wearer see more clearly. The Spanish conquistadores found fine emeralds among the treasures of both Mexico and Peru. In the United States, Stony Point, N. C., was a notable locality for these gems, but now seems to have been exhausted. The name emerald has been applied to many other green stones, usually with some geographical modification, as “Oriental emerald” which is green corundum, “Brazilian emerald” which is tourmaline, etc.
Giant beryls have been found at Acworth and Grafton, N. H., and at Royalston, Mass. Localities for ordinary beryl are Albany, Norway, Bethel, Hebron, Paris, and Topsham, Me., Barre, Goshen and Chesterfield, Mass., New Milford and Branchville, Conn., Chester and Mineral Hill, Penn., Stony Point, N. C., and many other localities in the Appalachians; also Mount Antero, Colo., and in the Black Hills of South Dakota.
[Sodalite]
Na₄Al₃Cl(SiO₄)₃
Occurs in irregular masses, sometimes in dodecahedrons; hardness, 5.5-6; specific gravity, 2.3; color deep-blue to colorless; streak white; luster vitreous; translucent on thin edges.
This striking mineral, with its deep-blue to azure color, is not easily confused with any other. It is characteristic of soda-rich igneous rocks such as syenite and some lavas. In this country it is found at Litchfield, Me., and Salem, Mass.
[Zircon]
ZrSiO₄
[Pl. 39]
Usually occurs in tetrahedral crystals in igneous rocks; hardness, 7.5; specific gravity, 4.7; color brown; luster vitreous; translucent on thin edges.
Zircon, the mineral of the rare earth element zirconium, nearly always occurs in light-colored igneous rocks, like syenite. It may occur in schists or gneisses, but in these rocks the crystals are of microscopic size. Because of their great hardness and insolubility, zircon crystals resist weathering and are often found, along with gold, cassiterite, or magnetite, in sands which have resulted from the disintegration of syenite rocks.