AMERICAN TURQUOISES.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 153, 29 June 1901, Page 3 (Supplement)

AMERICAN TURQUOISES.

This country is now producing- the bulk of the world's supply of turquoise, which is the most important of American gems, comraorcially. the output being1 mainly from New Mexico, where the deposits have been worked at irregular periods for teenturies. Long before the time of Columbus the New Mexican mines were worked in a primitive way by the aborigines, and in these \lays the' same stores of mineral treasure are yielding stones -upto sixty carats in weight and of quality equal to the finest Persian. Two companies are turning1 out more than 200,000 dollars' worth of turquoises annually, anfl a guarantee is given to replace jany specimen that changes colour within six months.

Turquoise owes its beautiful blue to the presence of phosphate of copper. For reasons not well understood the colour is not always permanent, and to this trouble the Egyptian stones are particularly liable. Persian stones frequently alter, but the New Mexican comparatively seldom. The Persian stones are a softer blue than ours and more opaque. The Egyptian are darker.

The aborigines of New Mexico took out the turqoise by building1 fires against the rocks, so as to crnck them and thus get out the precious substance. The Egyptian turquoises, so called, come in reality from Mount Sinai. The highly valued Persian stones are obtained from Nishapur in the most primitive manner. A wooden wheel operated by the feet of two men lying on their backs brings the broken rock to the surface in bags. The fragments are smashed with hammers, and when a turquoise is discovered it is put aside and sent with the next batch to Meshed to be cut. There is a market even for imperfect and green specimens, this kind of gem being greatly prized by the Orientals. The best "of those found go to the Shah, who owns a magnificent collection of turquoises..