There may not be large pieces of tourmaline in the rubble, but it would be possible to find some smaller, pencil-lead sized ones. The majority of tourmaline is multi-colored. There is also a colorless variety of the stone, but it is rare to find tourmaline without any color in it. Tourmaline is often found in the company of metamorphic rocks such as pegmatites, which contain crystals such as quartz and mica. It is also a good idea to find out ahead of time what kind of tourmaline is most commonly found at the mine you will be visiting.
For instance, if the mine usually has a lot of the watermelon type of tourmaline, then you will know to look for stones that are green with a pink core.
We recommend that you take a look at the great selection of tourmaline pieces at Amazon. Tourmaline in America. This has been our best day so far. Friday, October 27, — Another fine, clear autumn day. Spent most of the morning cleaning up around the sides of the pocket and digging out rubble, at the same time, trying to leave some crystals in place to show visitors from the State of Maine Geology Department due in the afternoon.
Late in the morning, while cleaning the back of the pocket, we found the beginning of another vug. Pulled out two or three crystals the size of beer cans. Showed them the beginning of the new pocket and invited each one in turn to remove a crystal or two.
They were tremendously excited and we had a hard time getting them out of the pocket. It was apparent that these clusters of large crystals occurred thousands of years ago when some pressure or tremors caused the crystals to break off from the sides of the pocket wall and fall in a mass to the center and sometimes base of the pocket.
We found that by carefully removing crystals and then laying them in rows outside the pocket, we are able to mate some sections. This is a frustrating process, as crystals seem fairly uniform in diameter — two or three inches — and similar in appearance, i. Have wrapped crystals from same clusters together and placed them in same box — hope to make better matches at some later date. Doyle, Anderson, and Malcolm McLean from the paper company, assisted Dale and Fred in partly cleaning and wrapping crystals, while Frank and I gingerly took them from the pocket.
All hand work now. The further we go, the more difficult it becomes to reach the tourmaline. We are constantly being bothered by surface water seeping from the back of the pocket.
As we are afraid to blast near the crystals, we have to chisel by hand to make room in the pocket to work. This leads to some very strange body positions and entanglements.
On more than one occasion, when either Frank or I have become cramped or cold from laying in the water, we have had to stop and figure out how to untangle ourselves in order to get into a new position. We are now deep enough into the ledge so that even with the problem of seeping water, it is warmer inside the hole than out. Dale went to the bank today and negotiated the lease of a vault in the cellar to store the material, as we have already outgrown the safe deposit vaults previously rented.
Saturday, October 28, — Very cold and dismal today with a light drizzle. Enlarged outside of pocket by hand to give us more room to work. Found what appears to be the beginning of another pocket behind the one we are now working. By chiseling and prying on the wall, we enlarged the hole enough so that Frank could get the top of his torso into the pocket. He brought out some very fine tourmaline and a great deal of granular and crystalline albite, most of it snow white and very pretty.
Enlarged the pocket in the afternoon so that two of us can work inside. Hard to tell at this point the size of the pocket, but there seems to be no end in sight. We have to work very carefully as we find nests of tourmalines randomly dispersed in the cleavelandite. We uncovered one tremendous crystal today, green, about 13 inches long, 4. Carefully scraped the albite away from the crystal and left it in place. Various members of the party working outside the pocket came in, one at a time, to see this magnificent specimen before we removed it.
We are now about 12 to 13 feet inside the mountain. It seems that they are doing all the dirty work while Frank and I have all the fun, even though we are cramped and the physical labor is very hard. We worked late into the night today. There seems to be no boundary as yet to the interior of the pocket. Sunday, October 29, — Arrived back at the site at dawn, Frank was already working inside the hole. I joined him inside the hole and Dale worked outside, trying to make room for the rubble we will be pushing out through the entrance.
Inside the pocket, we spent most of the morning cleaning out some of the debris and exploring the pocket in an attempt to determine how extensive it is.
At this point, the pocket is at least 15 feet long and 8 feet high,and there appears to be another chamber forming over to our right.
By afternoon, we left the first chamber, even though there are still plenty of tourmalines there and started to explore the second chamber, Our only light sources are battery lanterns. Usually Frank and I spell each other, one holding the lantern while the other works.
At times we both stop and put on both lanterns to explore. It is truly too beautiful to describe. There are pillars of purple lepidolite with very crystalline while albite piles between. Protruding from the albite are tourmaline crystals of all sizes and colors. As we worked our way into the second chamber, the tourmalines appeared to be smaller but even gemmier. Most of the tourmalines now are from two to four inches in diameter, some with red cores and a green rind, and others solid green.
We have found no solid red crystals so far. It rained hard all day and was very windy and cold, but nobody seemed to mind. Of course, Frank and I were inside the hole and we were not aware of the weather at all. When Dale is not shoveling rubble out, he huddles inside the entrance to the pocket and wraps and packs the better specimens.
The State sent two photographers up to take movies and still pictures but they were able to take still pictures only due to the bad weather. The section of the pocket we are in is so rich with tourmalines that even after the two of us in the pocket have picked out the better and bigger crystals, all of the refuse we send out has to be sorted again. There were several times today when Frank and I were literally blocked in the hole, as we had so much matrix material piled up at the entrance.
I tried smoking once or twice but found the smoke too irritating because of the small space and the lack of circulating air. Every once in a while, someone sends in a can of beer or an Italian sandwich and we will eat and drink as we work.
We are now 25 to 30 feet inside the ledge and have to handle the material at least twice before we can get it out to the entrance of the pocket. The volume of material produced today is unbelievable, as it was even more than yesterday — somewhere in the vicinity of pounds. Tomorrow morning, Dale plans to find more space in the bank to store material. Monday, October 30, — Fred returned today after a weekend at home and was obviously very pleased with the amount of material we were finding.
The heavy rain washed out many areas, and made the yard assent from the Twin Tunnels to the mine very hazardous. We have to be able to get at least one vehicle up there to haul our supplies and bring the tourmaline down at night. Bob has been spending some time working on the road — cordurying it with small trees where he can.
When Frank arrived this morning, he brought with him a 15 foot board to which he attached rails on either side. He thought this would be a more efficient way for is to get the material out of the pocket.
We laid he track from the entrance of the pocket to the beginning of the track with rocks and rubble, and now have a crude but very efficient mine railroad. There is still a great deal of water seeping into the pocket which is good in one sense, in that it indicates there is at least one more pocket area ahead of us, which we are inadvertently draining while we are digging.
However, it does make things very uncomfortable, as we are laying or kneeling in water most of the time. We have worked out a system where Frank and I take turns using the cart. He is now working in the first chamber and I am working in the second chamber.
When one of us comes to an area of good tourmaline, that person carefully picks and packs out the better specimens while the other uses the cart to send out the albite, lepidolite and smaller tourmalines that have to be shoveled away to get at the better material. The rubble now is so rich with good tourmaline that it is now taking two or three people on the outside of the pocket working all the time to pick out the smaller tourmalines from the other material.
Pieces cut perpendicular to the long axis can polarize light, and a pair of these plates form a very simple polarizing apparatus known as tourmaline tongs. DesertUSA Newsletter -- We send articles on hiking, camping and places to explore, as well as animals, wildflower reports, plant information and much more.
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