contents [email protected] contents president's message 2 bursary thank you letters 3 oldest known...

Summer 2009 | 1

RockhounderB.C.

Editor:Win [email protected](250) 376-4878#6 - 2401 Ord Rd.Kamloops, BC V2B 7V8

Cover Photo:Biggs Jasper. Photo By Mike Coulter

Vol. 12 Summer 2009

Design & Layout:Mike [email protected] - (250) 682-9134Kamloops, BCV2C 5C2

Printing:Sure Kamloops Print & Copy Centre(250) 554-1322552 Tranquille Rd.Kamloops, BC

Published Quarterly By the British Columbia Lapidary Society

20739 39th Avenue, Langley, BC V3A 2V7 Tel: (604) 532-0582E-mail: [email protected]

ContentsPresident's Message 2Bursary Thank You Letters 3Oldest Known Gold Artifact Discovered 4Daisy, 45 years of Rockhounding 5The History Of Lapidary: Part II 6A Trip to Coon Hollow 11What is a Mineral? 12The Hauser Beds of California 14Fraser Canyon 1858: BC born of Bloodshed 15Cosmetic Minerals of Ancient Egypt 16Safety: It's just Dust, isn't it? 17The Earth's Crust: An Introduction 17Madras 2009 20Revamped ROM Mineral Gallery 22The Best Field Trip: Similco Mine 23Around the Clubs 24Rendezvous 2010 30Summer Camp 2010 32For Sale 39Club Shows 40

2 | B.C. Rockhounder Summer 2009 | 3

I would like to thank all the Rockhound club members for having the confidence in me to make me your president for the 2009-2011, two year term. I’m pleased to have a talented and hard working executive with which to work. I will do my best to work with the executive and club members to conduct the business of the B.C Lapidary Society.

I wholeheartedly thank the many members who give overwhelming support to the work of the society. I am amazed at the time, energy and careful thought that so many of you are contributing daily, to ensure the smooth running of the Society.

Especially, I would like to thank the members of the newly formed Rendezvous Committee, namely, Pat Boden, (BCLS-Rendezvous Liaison), Lorne Morris, Ken Dewerson, Win Robertson, along with myself. Your fresh ideas and thoughtful reflections regarding Rendezvous are much appreciated, and this dedica-tion will make Rendezvous an exciting and well run event for the enjoyment of all.

There are 34 rock clubs in B.C. with growing, pas-sionate interest in rock collecting, lapidary work, jewelry making, silversmithing, carving, faceting, intarsia and others.

Our Rockhound locations do not have an unlimited supply of rocks and minerals.I encourage you to take what you can use, only, and leave the rest for upcoming generations of Rockhounds..For example, Hill 60, our main rhodonite source, once had an abundant pile, available for the picking.

Now the pile is gone. While digging and some careful looking can still net you a piece of the pink, it is not as easy as it once was to find a quality piece of rhodonite.

Our old friend, Bill Wardle, used to say that he could go out to the Fraser River bars and pick up five jade slicks. Now most of us are lucky to find one in a lifetime.

When I started rockhounding in 1996, we used to see all kinds of sillimanite, and usually kicked the pieces aside. Now, even those are hard to find.

So you can see that it is important not to deplete the supply of interesting rocks and minerals from the locations we have already found, and to leave some behind for others.

It is also important to continue searching for new sites for future Rockhound trips. Here in B.C., we have our minerals hidden under several feet of overburden, and it requires lots of looking, digging, and a keen, observant eye to notice the small bits on the surface that indicate the bonanza below..

There is an abundance of material in this province of ours, and we have to continue to look for new locations that have material for our hobby..Happy rockhounding!

De Morgan, President, B.C. Lapidary Society

President’s Message

Lapis Gems LapidaryPrecious, Semi-Precious Stones & Minerals

Mohammad YarzadehM. Homayon

27 Roy’s Square(Yonge & Bloor)Toronto, ON M4Y 2W4

Tel: (416) 944-3123Fax: (416) 944-3309

Past president Walt Pinder, passing the gavel to incoming president De Morgan

British Columbia Lapidary SocietyBursaryThank You!Letters

Ken DewersonAuthorized Dealer

TesoroMetal Detectors

#338-2330 Butt Rd.Westbank, BC V4T 2I3

[email protected]

C&D GemcraftCustom Made Gemstone Jewelery & Repairs

David BarclayAccredited Gemologist (C.I.G.)

Phone/Fax: (250) 766-4353Email: [email protected]

Box 42015, R.P.O. NorthWinfield, BC V4V 1Z8


Gold has long been more than a fashion statement, and wearing jewelry and other adornments made of it often connotes prestige. And it did not take long for ancient people to figure that out.

A team of scientists led by an archaeologist from The University of Arizona has unearthed what is, to date, the oldest collection gold artifacts found in the Americas.

The finding suggests that even early groups with limited resources recognized the value of status symbols. Mark Aldenderfer, a professor of anthropology at the UA, and his team excavated a site in the Peruvian Andes of South America, near Lake Titicaca. The site, Jiskairumoko, is located in a drainage basin where groups of hunters and gatherers were beginning to make the transition to a more settled existence.

Dates for the Archaic period, when Jiskairumoko was inhabited by these people, are as early as 5,400 years ago and ending about 4,000 years ago.

The site Aldenderfer and the others excavated included a burial that contained a necklace made of turquoise and native gold that had been hammered into shape, and may have belonged to someone with an elevated rank in the community.

Carbon-14 dates for Jiskairumoko range from 2155 to 1936 B.C., making the necklace about 4,000 years old, and some 600 years older than the previous earliest known gold artifacts in

South America, or anywhere else in the Americas.

Gold metallurgy is almost exclu-sively associated with societies with the expertise to create agri-cultural surpluses and hereditary elite members. Jewelry requires time and skill to create, as well as sufficient capital required to acquire raw materials, a tall order for anyone who survives by subsis-tence. The surprise of finding gold artifacts at Jiskairumoko is that this site was a simple village.

The artist who created the Jiskairu-moko necklace hammered gold until it was flat enough to roll into small cylindrical beads. The nine gold beads were interspaced with several smaller green stones and a

turquoise bead in the center.

The materials were not available from the Titicaca Basin, requiring either a trade or a trip of some distance to acquire the gold and turquoise, or the finished necklace.

Evidence from Jiskairumoko supports the hypoth-

esis that the earliest metal industry in the Andes was with native gold. It also offers some insights into ways in which wealthier people in society competed for and acquired power and prestige, pointing the way for generations of rule by hereditary leaders.

This research was recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Jiskairumoko necklace. (Credit: Photo courtesy of Mark Aldenderfer)

Oldest Known Gold Artifacts in the

AmericasDiscovered The Facts AreThe continents of North and South America were named after the Italian navigator, Amerigo Vespucci (1454 97 1512). Amerigo Vespucci owned a merchant business that equipped ships with supplies for their voyages. Vespucci was an explorer himself and left accounts and maps of 4 voyages he took to the New World; it is believed he explored a large section of the north and east coast of South America. Vespucci’s name, Amerigo was first adapted to America in a trans-lation of one of his narratives and later appeared on a world map, as America, referring to the two continents North and South America.

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ROCK FEVER

From Taslap, the newsletter of the Lapidary Club of Tasmania.

(With apologies (deep) to John Masefield)

I must go off to the beach again or the bush or quarry or hill And all I ask is the time to search as long as I have the will For a place unknown where I'd find a stone that's never been seen before And as we go a chance to know some more of the Rockhounds lore I must go off to the club again to cut and polish and shine And find this time in the stone I shine a piece that's perfect and mine Now all I ask is for friends to join this wonderful hobby we're sharing And rock-hunting dreams by gem laden streams When we're past life's stages of caring.

It all started with a 50 pound piece of Ocean Agate!! That’s what got Lois hooked on rock-hounding. She and her husband Louie found it at a rock shop in Rock Creek, B.C. while on a camping trip in 1963. When they returned home, they joined the Powell River Rock Club and from that point on camping was all about looking for rocks. Lois recalls that when they were camping, instead of bringing fish back for dinner, Louie now brought rocks.The two were very active members of the Powell River Club, building their own shop and participating in all club activities. For years Lois was involved with the Pebble Pups (kids) and taught as many as 13 at a time the skills of polishing cabochons. Now that took patience. The kids proudly displayed their work at the annual shows.

Lois and Louis travelled through-out BC, across Canada, up to Alaska and the Yukon in their camper. Three trips were made to Quartzite where they met friends and thoroughly enjoyed the amazing variety of rocks on display and for sale. They also travelled to Mexico and Hawaii, rockhounding and collecting all the while.

In 1980, the couple retired to the Comox Valley and joined the

Courtenay Gem & Mineral Club. Over the years Lois has held every executive position in the club

and in May 1981 Lois was elected president of the Courtenay Club. She organized Vancouver Island Gemborees and worked at all club shows - her specialty being Kids Corner and Spin & Win. She was also the club’s “name tag sheriff” (25 cents if you don’t wear you name tag to the meeting). Some long time members have contrib-uted many quarters to the Club funds. In 1991, after 52 years in a happy and loving marriage, Lois lost her dear husband Louie. She remained very active with the Club continuing to teach new members in her workshop the tricks of making the perfect cab and filling any position in the Club that needed her experienced hand.

Lois also enjoys putting her own showcases together for the annual shows. She has collected so much material over the years, that all it takes is a “brainwave” and the makings are at her fingertips.

Besides rockhounding, Lois continues to enjoy camping in her van with the Comox Valley RV Club, organizing activities in her Valley Vista community, playing crib, watching baseball and cheering for the Canucks.

As for the 50 lb. piece of Ocean Agate that started it all 45 years ago - she and Louie had it slabbed and this photo is of Lois and her “Ocean Agate

"She has collected so much material over the years, that all it takes is a “brainwave” and the makings are at her fingertips."

45+ years of Rockhounding

“Daisy” Lois Stevenson

By Gloria Duncan

Seascape” showcase after the 2009 Courtenay show. Lois, now 89 is an honorary lifetime member of the Courtenay Gem & Mineral Club, a wonderful person and a true rockhounder indeed!!

When photographing jewelry, carvings etc. if there is a problem with the reflective surfaces. Try putting the piece in a refrigera-tor for a few minutes. When it comes out, it will immediately fog up and you will be able to take a good picture.”

There is also a product called dulling spray, available from art supply stores and perhaps photography shops. It costs around $8 for a good sized can. The residue can easily be rubbed off the object after taking photo-graphs.

Editor's note:

I tried out the fridge trick to take pictures of some sterling silver pieces of jewelry and a jade carving. Worked great!

Photographing Polished Objects

Hair spray is supposed to work very well as a

dulling spray!

Try this!

Tips from the internet


off quickly. This style of phenomenal cabochon cutting dramatized the star’s rays and minimized their tendency to break up.

Major change or not, the advantages of the Rose cut included the opportunity to fashion flat stones. It also provided maximum spread and/or yield for a crystal’s weight and size. Throughout the 17th Century, the Rose cut found primary use as ornamentation on costumes, scabbards, sword hilts, harness trappings, epaulettes, dishes, candlesticks, boxes, etc.

Some controversy still exists over the origin of the Rose cut. Western history books attribute the cut to the efforts of French Cardinal Jules Mazarin, (1602-61). The ferocious Cardinal contracted for many diamonds in behalf of the French royal court, so many in fact, that an original type of faceting carried his name.

Most reliable sources believe that it was developed in Indian and then brought to Europe by Venetian merchants. After all, Indian cutters had produced the famous Koh-i-Nur, (Mountain of Light). This famous diamond was cut in the Rose style no later than 1530 as was the equally famous Great Mogul.

The latter explanation appears most valid. Macles and thin fragments were plentiful in India. Indeed, cynical Indian merchants are known to have hood-winked ignorant miners into believing that the best test of a diamond was to strike it a blow with a hammer. If the crystal did not withstand the hit, it could not possibly be a diamond, the wily merchants explained.

Few hard, but brittle diamonds could withstand such a destructive test. When the miner departed after a testing session, the merchants gathered up the broken pieces and fled back to town and the cutting shops. History simply does not record how many fine, large Indian diamonds were destroyed this way. The loss must have been substan-tial. India was famous as a reservoir of large diamond crystals at the time.

Origin of the Rose Cut NameThe name for the Rose Cut stemmed from its alleged appearance of an opening rose bud. Such a cut can show considerable reflected light, (called life). In the absence of any design consid-eration for optics, it is deficient in the amount of color flashing. This is caused by the stone splitting the white light into its color spectrum, (called fire.)

It was cut in a variety of forms because the original shape of the rough usually dictated the mode of cutting. The Dutch rose is more pointed than others are. The Antwerp, (also called the Brabant,) is not quite so high with steeper inclined base.

With the few exceptions cut in oval or peach shapes, Rose cuts are generally round. The double rose, cut on both sides, achieved some popularity in the 19th Century. For the most part, double rose cutting, and keep in mind that the Sancy and the famous yellow Florentine were both cut in this fashion, gradually transitioned into other formal cut designs. These newer innovations consist of brilloettes, pendeloques, beads, and spheres.

Why hasn’t the Rose cut maintained its popularity? Light discipline can be the only answer. When you consider that Rose cuts are designed as a function reflected light the loss potential looms obvious. Some 83% of available light enters a diamond. A diamond reflects only 17% from its surface. The remainder is internal reflection. That means that a Rose cut forfeits more than 4/5’s of its potential brilliancy.

Considerations when Deciding on a Cut

The previous discussion represents valuable considerations to take into account as you ponder the decision to cut a transparent stone en cabochon versus faceting it. Not everyone should expect to cut like CSM, Don Clark, as illustrated here. Nor is everyone an ac-complished cabochon cutter or carver.

Just keep in mind that reflected light enhances surface colors and textures. That is the great strength of cabochons

versus faceted stones. The cabochon relies principally on surface reflected light to dramatize the color, texture, pattern, and surface quality of the mineral.

The faceted stone utilizes reflection along with deflection. Light not only reflects from the surface but enters the crystal, reflects off the interior of carefully placed and angled facets then emerges again. Often as not, the emergence captures some of the refrac-tion qualities, so the former is separated into its color spectrum too.

When light enters a transparent crystal, its rays can be disciplined and con-trolled. The amount and quality of light returned to the eye demonstrates the ambitions of a faceted stone. Regard-less of your experience, you will always cut a lovely gemstone if you keep these simple principles in mind.

Cardinal Mazarin’s Role Disputed

Earlier mention was made of Cardinal Mazarin. There is considerable contro-versy over his rightful place in gemcut-ting history. Yes, the 34-faced, rather chunky, brilliant type of diamond cut is named after him. There is little question, though, that he merely ordered such stones cut and contributed little design or technical influence other than financing.

Mazarin became a Cardinal of the Church in 1640 and succeeded Richeleau in 1642 as First Minister of France. A gem fancier par excellence, he continued in that office until his death. Throughout his life, he remained one of Tavernier’s best customers. That really seems to be his chief claim to lapidary fame. With a constant supply of fine, large rough specimens, he commissioned many rose cuts. He commissioned so many in fact that some improperly have attributed the development of the rose cut to him. The rose cut actually was in vogue years before his time.

Upon his death, Mazarin left a will that bequeathed eighteen diamonds. The will conditionally included de Berguen’s

The Modern Age of Diamond Arrives

The impact on the French court on the brilliant, imaginative cuts, was such that all of France and Europe soon began demanding brilliant diamonds. Without a doubt, the age of the diamond had truly arrived. Refinements, as could be expected, were to come along later.

It should be recognized that de Berquen, however brilliant his cutting breakthrough, was not concentrating on brilliance and optics at the time. The Sancy design and cuts he origi-nated were intended solely to produce maximum yield in the Duke’s rough consistent with good cutting execution. This design ambition was totally suc-cessful.

Success though, still wrested payment in kind. The historically famous Sancy

Diamond may have represented a true break away from everything that had gone on before, but it is a cut stone that is really too thin to display maximum brilliance as the cut is repeated on both sides.

Notice that the corners are merely truncated. They are not the same width as the main or bezel facets. This gives the de Berguen cut a blocky or chunky appearance, a shape known better today as a square emerald.

The truly important contribution involved the appearance of triangular break facets on both the crown and pavilion. These helped control and discipline the light. In the absence of theory that would explain what was occurring internally, the break facets improved scintillation by a quantum leap. Little wonder that society responded so favorably to this innova-tion.

Sancy Diamond Introduces Bottom Cutting

Cutting the Sancy on both sides, though, demonstrated that the bottom of a gemstone could provide interesting optical effects. Technically, the Sancy

could be called a double rose cut, since the top and bottom are identical.

That was interesting enough. Something else, of even greater importance than the bottom reflections, became evident to diamond cutters. With the addition of a second row of facets on each side, it was obvious that external light perfor-mance was substantially improved. Far more than any other cuts of the time, the Sancy cuts absolutely sparkled.Thanks to the Sancy influence, the rose cut continued to grow in prominence. Various innovations on the rose cut represented a dramatic departure from previous cutting modes. The Rose cut consisted of a flat-bottomed cut, with a hexagonal, (six fold,) facet arrange-ments. These facets were stacked sym-metrically on the domed and faceted top, or crown. This crown appearance virtually duplicates what today is known as an Apex Cut. The modern Apex cut consists of a rose cut-type crown all right, but it also features a fully faceted pavilion.

The apex cut actually developed from lapidaries who had discovered that the way to exhibit a star stone best was to cut a steep top, one that sloped

The History

of Lapidarypart II

By Gerald Wykoff, CSM GG


Sancy, as well as the Mirror of Portugal, to the French crown. His condition was that they were to be known as The Mazarin Diamonds.Not surprisingly Mazarin is thus sometimes credited with cutting theSancy.

Mazarin is also incorrectly credited with the breakthrough developed in the brilliant cutting mode. This cutting style featured a cushion shaped cut with 17 facets above the girdle and 17 facets below the girdle. de Berguen had actually performed this design more than 100 years earlier.

History Reveals No Single Inventor

It should be apparent that lapidary history could not show any one single inventor of the round brilliant cut. Each advance depended on better technol-ogy and then the creativity of cutters. They coupled what knowledge they possessed of diamonds and colored stones to make use of the improvement in tools, materials, or technique.

A major step, though, took place late in the 1600’s in Venice. There a diamond cutter apparently named Peruzzi modified the Berguen double row style. Peruzzi’s new 58-facet cut introduced the concept of break and star facets. This innovation was in effect a triple cut. Although the design was to undergo a number of variations, the configuration is essentially what is seen today in the round brilliant cut.

The first name, Vincenzio, is often given for Peruzzi but intensive research shows that, while Venice did have a Peruzzi family at the time, there was never anyone named Vincenzio.

Remember: even the Peruzzi cut was blocky, not a perfect round. Also, even at this late date, rough diamonds and colored stones were still usually rounded by the tremendously laborious technique of hand bruting. This was especially true when the diamond occurred in the octahedral form.

With the discovery of the Brazilian diamond deposits, a great impetus

was given to brilliant cutting. The new designs were in a cushion shaped form known as old-mine cuts or Brazilian cut. Still, the cutters remained faithful to the triple cut mode. With 58 facets, such a cutting design represented the forerun-ner to the Old European, (essentially an Old Miner design, but rounded verses the Miner’s squarish appearance,) and the modern round brilliant. Smaller stones were single cut with 17 facets on the crown and 16, (not including a culet facet,) on the pavilion.

Shape of the Crystal Still Dictated Plan

Despite advances, the original shape of the crystal still dictated the plan shape of the finished stone. When working with octahedrons, the cut would invari-ably come out squarish, or cushion shaped. If the shape was more of a rhombic dodecahedral then, a round shape could be expected.

In the 19th Century, more fully rounded diamonds were being produced. These gradually became known as Old

European Cuts. Compared to modern cutting practices, they were character-ized by small tables, large culets, and greater depth.

In addition, English cutters opted for thinner girdles than Dutch cutters. For years, it was this difference that marked a stone’s cutting origin. Thus, when viewing an Old European cut, inspect the girdle: its thickness often reflects English or Dutch cutting.Tolkowsky Calculates Ideal Brilliant When the Polish engineer, Marcel Tolkowsky, in 1914 published a theo-retical treatise on the ideal dimensions of the diamond, the modern round brilliant form finally came into its own. Marcel’s document established the accepted cutting angles for pavilions, (41 degrees,) and crowns, (34 degrees.) Interestingly enough, Tolkowsky never provided one iota of mathematical or optical proof that his angles represented the ideal.

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Some critics have suggested that his diamond cutting production experience could have led him to select angles that would produce a pleasing silhouette while maximizing yield from the existing angles of rough octahedral crystals. In any event, publication and acceptance of Tolkowsky’s calculations pretty much ended the experimentation that various cutters had been making over the years in their search for greater brilliance.

Tolkowsky’s dimensions may have earned a warm reception from cutters but the optical performance of the result has never been questioned. His dimen-sions called for greater precision and discipline. This led to the development of better machinery and tools. It likewise placed more emphasis on machine bruting and sawing.

Of considerable impact to the cutting trade, the ideal diamond configuration was an almost immediate hit among diamond buyers. Small diamonds were still cut primarily for yield, but on larger and better quality gems the proportions became a virtual must as buyers literally measured the new dimensions.

Modifications to Tolkowsky’s original computations were inevitable. The table became slightly larger and the pavilion girdle, or break facets became longer, sometimes extended to 8/10ths of the distance from girdle to culet tip.

Increasingly, recutters began adding faceted girdles, especially after the original patents ran out. Because colored stone fashioning is a derivative of diamond cutting, the new theories and shapes quickly spread throughout the lapidary industry. Lapidaries continued to experiment and it was not long before they realized that the chemical, optical, and physical per-sonalities of the various stones varied considerably.

It was seen that cutting angles needed modification for each variety of gemstone. Unfortunately, there is little scientific justification for many of the published angles on colored stones. Today, many of these so-called recom-

mended angles appear more a figment of the authors’ imagination and personal bias than they do as mathematically based criteria.

As more research emerges concerning the influence of refractive index and critical angle, it appears that the varia-tions in recommended angles have little basis in fact. The problem with angles is also compounded when the true basis for cutting is considered.

The diamond is primarily cut for bril-liance or the return of white light. Even with brilliant colored diamonds, called fancies, the cutting remains directed toward brilliance. Not so with colored stones. With the exception of clear or river colors where brilliant cutting is the objective, most colored stones are cut just for that, color enhancement or promotion. A beautiful raspberry hued garnet, or rich green emerald, is cut so as to dramatize the color.

Universal Angle SetUnder these circumstances, brilliance becomes a subordinate goal. Based on math and raytrace analysis, the author, Gerald Wykoff CMG GG showed mathematically that almost any trans-parent crystal could be effectively cut with angles of 42-degree main pavilion and 36-degree main crown. He further demonstrated the validity of these angles by analyzing the mathematics of the rainbow and its display of colors to the viewer from the 42-degree anti-solar position.

This colored stone angle set, he claims, represents the best, and most natural, compromise between color and bril-liance. Most diamond cutting consists of cutting the round brilliant or one of its variations. The latter includes such cuts as the pear, marquise, oval, heart, etc. It has been estimated that some 90% to 95% of all diamonds are cut in the round brilliant style or one of its variations. Lapidaries, understandably enough, facet commercially in the round brilliant mode at only slightly less than the diamond ratio.

Emerald, or square shaped diamonds,

cut in the step or trap style, developed later. Once cutters realized how these cuts dramatized and improved color, the incidence of step cutting steadily increased. Accordingly, cutters developed greater appreciation and skill in showcasing color. It required more advanced equipment, too, to cut the long, strictly disciplined facets so necessary in step cutting.

Responding to the appreciation of the long, classical proportions of the emerald cut, colored stone cutters’ ex-perimentations in the last few decades have produced a series of magnificent innovations. These new designs mix brilliant and color cutting techniques.

Some innovations, which create a sort of brilliant color spray or light fountain effect, go by such design name of Radiant, Trilliant, Barion, and Princess. For the most part, these mixed designs combine step cutting with brilliant cutting.

Simultaneously, conventional step or trap cutting showed a steady progres-sion too. Square or rectangular facets versus the kite or triangular facets of the brilliant style, of course, mark step cutting. The old table cut, for example, is more closely related to a step cut than to a brilliant and this becomes ever more evident as the square extends into a rectangular shape.

For diamonds, a step cut is almost invariably determined by the shape and grain of the rough. Yield is greater when cutting a non-standard configuration cutting straight lines that match the rough’s outline. Yield understandably suffers when a rounded brilliant cut is imposed on rough.Furthermore, step cuts do not always require symmetry.

There is another important benefit in step cutting. These cuts are deliberately deeper or thicker than brilliant cuts. It is this extra depth that provides the much better showcase for colored gems.

The laws of physics state that, the longer light travels through a medium and is subjected to selective absorp-


experimenting, creating new forms and shapes, and taking an occasional venture into light control. Michael Dyber, a winner of numerous inter-national awards, represents a good example of the new, creative cutting edge.

In the last few years, cabs have vaulted into public attention as cabbers developed forms in their own right and also blended their innova-tions with classical faceting. Likely as not, the marriage could produce a Dyber creation or something more in the carving mode from Larry Woods, marvelous geometric forms that control and direct light.

When we heard the news of a field trip going for fire agate, we were excited! There were 6 of us, from the Abbotsford and Surrey clubs, down in Quartzsite, Arizona. We were heading toward the California border on this field trip led by Cam Bacon, B.C. Gem Show chairman and member of the Abbotsford Rockhounders. We went through Blythe, and onto several long, dusty, gravel roads, when we encountered a very well appointed campsite in the desert. By well appointed, I mean it wasn’t boon docking (camping in the dry desertwith NO services). There was water, a small library under a rooftop with no walls, clean, well-maintained, Cadilac version outhouses, and well spaced campsites. A very attractive spot called, “Coon Hollow”. We didn’t see any coons, but Miss Bright Blue Eyes, also known as Ida Bacon, informed us that she and her family used to come down and camp here, having had some

A Trip to Coon Hollow

With Miss Bright Blue Eyes

tion, the richer and purer will be the visible hue. Thus, the step cut, which most dramatically showcased in the great green emerald, finds great validity among colored stones. Because the trap cut is significantly deeper than a brilliant cut, the resultant reduction in the amount of brilliant white light actually enhances the color content.

It is no accident that most emeralds are cut in the step or trap mode. This well-known preference has earned the cut the label - emerald cut.

Technology, Technique Penetrates India

Only in the last few years has modern diamond cutting penetrated India. The hand held techniques of Indian cutters, together with a manually driven iron-cutting wheel, have been practiced for centuries. As a matter of fact, the famed international traveler and writer on gem lore, Jean Baptiste Tavernier, visited the diamond cutting shops of India in 1665. Even then, he observed that the skills of the many cutters apparently had not progressed much beyond their primitive beginnings.

It was standard practice to rub the diamond by hand over a diamond dust covered metal plate. Later, they fabricated a rotating wheel that could be turned by hand driven cranks. As for technique, when an Indian cutter detected a blemish or inclusion he would continue to orient the stone until reaching a soft grain direction. Then he would simply grind in a facet, removing the defect.

You could spot an Indian cut stone and evaluate its clarity with some accuracy. A poor quality stone was covered with haphazard facets. Furthermore, the imperfection removing facets offered no consideration to symmetry.

Probably the most acceptable distinc-tion between Indian and European diamond cutting as this: discipline. The Indian cutter’s primary objective was to polish the existing faces of a crystal. If necessary, he would cover the crystal with an abundance of facets intended

to remove unsightly flaws. However, he gave no attention toward shape, symmetry, or beauty of form.

The European cutters, and they are generally credited with making diamond cutting an art form, strived for pleasing shape and improved light performance. This same striving later led to the investigation of optical possibilities. The cutters’ intent was actually to improve upon the potential of a diamond’s physical, chemical, and optical proper-ties. In short, diamond polishing may have been the contribution of the Indian artisans.

The European, particularly the Italians and the French, provided the craft of diamond cutting. Tavernier, who was thoroughly familiar with the diamond cutting industry in France and in Italy, could make such a rapid assessment. He was thoroughly familiar with the spreading use of iron diamond cutting wheels and specialized tools utilized in European shops. He was also familiar with the growing body of optical knowledge.

Europeans Thrust AheadKnowing that Europeans were thrusting ahead with one superb diamond development after another, he realized that colored stone progress, enjoying a sort of trickle down, was advancing in step.

Intarsia, also known as pietre dure or mosaics, in hard stone, reached its highest level in Italy. Individual master-pieces have been traced back to the early 17th Century. For nearly 400 years the famed Opificio delle Pietre Dure, (workshop of hard stones,) in Florence has remained world famous for the exquisite marvels that flow steadily from its workbenches.

Today, the work in the Opificio is mainly restoration and contract stained glass work. Some original work is done but it is on a much smaller scale. In its heyday of incredible stone paintings, only royalty could afford such masterpieces.What gave the Opificio its advantage was the nearby availability of pietra

paesina i.e., landscape stone. The Alberese stone together with, Arno lineato, an agate from the Arno river valley near Florence, assured the pre-eminence of Florentine intarsia. Only the Owyhee and Biggs Canyon jaspers of America’s Northwest can rival this marvelous dark stones. The Alberese stone is a limestone patterned in grays and browns, suggesting silhouettes. Arno lineato is striped in grays.

Boulders of the stone are first slabbed and polished. Into this stone are fitted or inlaid the contrasting stone. This forms the incredible stone paintings and art renderings that made Florence the center of intarsia.

Even by today’s standards, the Flo-rentine techniques are astonishing. In the main workroom, the large grinding machines are located in the center of the room, looking like old fashioned roll top desks without the top. Each craftsman, perched on a high stool at the work station, operates a hand tool which is driven by a foot pedal ar-rangement. The pedal looks like an old foot driven sewing machine. They are attached to a horizontal spindle with a tiny abrasive wheel.

With his work on the table top in front of him, a craftsman skillfully shapes slabs and pieces of the pattern into precise fitting parts. In earlier years, before the advent of electrically driven equipment, stones were cut by a wire mud saw setup. Pieces were sawed from the slabs with a bow type wire saw using a steady stream of grit and water.

Once the individual pieces had been cut to precise dimensions, they were lapped to equal depth on the big machines. In the final stages, the pieces were, and still are, attached with mastic to a base of slate.

Cabochon Advancements As splendid as were the faceting and inlay advancements, traditional cabochon cutting kept pace. For too long, a cabochon consisted merely of a rounded egg shape. Resisting iron bound history, gem cutting artists began

Trip # 3 from Quartzsite, Arizonaby De Morgan, Feature Writer

very enjoyable stays.Ida Bacon, mother of three active rockhounds, two of whom I know: Cam Bacon, published author and our trip leader, Terry Bacon, former recording secretary of the BCLS and re-founder of the Abbotsford Rock Club, has just had her 90th birthday. She goes everywhere, on all the trips with Cam and Terry. She is enthusiastic and unstoppable! Why, you ask, would anyone care to camp out there? Across the road and down a few miles, on a flat, nondescript area of desert, we emerged from our cars. There were desert roses everywhere we looked. We were told that there were some with fire-agate, and those were the ones with the dark brownish colour. Ida was out of the car and looking around at all of the desert roses on the ground. With her blue eyes sparkling with energy, she told of past times when she and her family would come down here and camp, finding fireagate in this area, and going also toward the nearby hills, where the material is even better. I picked up many desert roses that were whole and unbroken, which I would like to learn to wire wrap with a technique I saw down here, using very thin silver wire and small, crimped bends. I also kept a sharp eye for any big roses, and the brownish ones with the fire

agate. I picked up a few that may have some fire in them, once the top layer is ground away, and lots of the tiny, whole, artistically formed ones to use for wirewrap-ping. When there is an abundance of material and it’s easy to find, it is very exciting to be out on a field trip.

We stayed at that location for just a half-hour, and during that time, I picked up a bag full of the chalcedony roses. I didn’t pick up everything I saw, as they were everywhere we looked. I would like to go back there and camp for a few days, taking the time to head up into those hills to see what else is around. What a fun place to go! Thanks Ida and Cam for taking us there!

GastrolithsBy Ross Jones

Many ground dwelling birds arenoted for their habit of selecting and swallowing an assortment of stones to aid their digestive processes. Stories abound about how life for your everyday farmyard chicken in parts of South West Africa became risky indeed after a large diamond was reportedly found in the gizzard of one Sunday dinner.


?

If you play “Twenty Questions,” the first question is “Animal, vegetable or mineral?” If the answer is “mineral,” it could mean anything that isn’t alive or formerly alive. That’s too vague for geology. A mineral is any substance with all of four specific qualities. Minerals Are Natural: substances that form without any human help.

Minerals Are Solid: substances that don’t droop or melt or evaporate. Minerals Are Inorganic: substances that aren’t carbon compounds like those found in living things.

Minerals Are Crystalline: sub-stances that have a distinct recipe and arrangement of atoms.That’s much better. Look at the Mineral Picture Gallery to see lots of examples that match these criteria. But geologists still know of some exceptional cases.

Unnatural MineralsUntil the 1990s, mineralogists could propose names for chemical compounds that formed during the breakdown of artificial sub-stances, things found in places like industrial sludge pits and rusting cars (although iron rust is the same as the natural minerals

hematite, magnetite and goethite). That loophole is now closed, but there are minerals on the books that aren’t truly natural.

Soft MineralsTraditionally, native mercury is considered a mineral, even though the metal is liquid at room temperature. At about 40 degrees below zero, mercury solidifies and forms crystals like other metals. So there are parts of Antarctica where mercury is unimpeachably a mineral.

For a less extreme example, consider the mineral ikaite, a hydrated calcium carbonate that forms only in cold water. It degrades into calcite and water above 8 degrees Celsius. It is significant in the polar regions, the ocean floor and other cold places, but you can’t bring it into the lab except in a freezer.

Ice is a mineral, even though it isn’t listed in the mineral field guide. But when ice collects in large enough bodies, it flows in its solid state—that’s what glaciers are. And salt (halite) behaves similarly, rising underground in broad domes and sometimes spilling out in salt glaciers. Indeed, all minerals, and the rocks they are part of, slowly deform given enough heat and pressure. That’s what makes plate tectonics possible. So in a sense, no mineral is really solid except maybe diamond.

Other minerals that aren’t quite solid are instead flexible. The mica minerals are the best-known example, but molybdenite is another. Its metallic flakes can be crumpled like aluminum foil. And of course the asbestos mineral chrysotile is stringy enough to weave into cloth.

Organic MineralsThe rule that minerals must be inorganic may be the strictest one. The substances that make

up coal, for instance, are different kinds of hydrocarbon compounds derived from cell walls, wood, pollen and so on. These are called macerals instead of minerals (for more see Coal in a Nutshell). But if coal is squeezed hard enough for long enough, the carbon sheds all its other elements and becomes graphite. Even though it is of organic origin, graphite is a true mineral, carbon atoms arranged in sheets. Diamond, similarly, is carbon atoms arranged in a rigid framework. After some 4 billion years of life on Earth, it’s safe to say that all the world’s diamonds and graphite are of organic origin even if they aren’t strictly speaking organic.

Amorphous Minerals

A few things fall short in crystallin-ity, hard as we try. Many minerals

form crystals that are too small to see under the microscope. But even these can be shown to be crystalline at the nano-scale using the technique of X-ray powder diffraction, though, because X-rays are a super-short-wave type of light that can image extremely small things. Having a crystal form means that the substance has a definite recipe, or chemical formula. It might be as simple as halite’s (NaCl) or complex like, say, epidote (Ca2Al2(Fe3+,Al)(SiO4)(Si2O7)O(OH)), but if you were shrunk to an atom’s size, you could tell what mineral you were seeing by its molecular makeup and arrangement.

But a few substances fail the X-ray test. They are truly glasses or colloids, with a fully random structure at the atomic scale. They are amorphous, scientific Latin for “formless.” These get the

honorary name mineraloid. Min-eraloids are a small club: strictly speaking it includes only opal and lechatelierite. Opal is a nearly random combination of silica (SiO2, the same as quartz) and water formed under near-surface conditions, while lechatelierite is a quartz glass formed by the shock of a meteorite impact or lightning striking the ground.

Other substances considered mineraloids include the gemstones jet and amber, which are respec-tively high-quality fossils of coal and tree resin. Pearl goes here too, although I disagree because by that logic, seashells should be included. The last mineraloid is rather like the rusty car I mentioned earlier: limonite is a mixture of iron oxides that, while it may assume the shape of a proper iron-oxide mineral, has no structure or order whatever.

?What Is a

Mineral?

Which brings us to dinosaurs. It appears that dinosaurs too felt the need to choose and swallow an assortment of stones to aid digestion. In the early days of collecting petrified dinosaur remains, little notice was taken of the odd, smooth, rounded, apparently water worn pebble found among the broken pieces of weathered stone and fossil remains. It soon became evident that these stones were worn smoother even than river pebbles and they were quickly identi-fied as gastroliths or digestion stones. One particular area of Wyoming became a prolific source of these previously over-looked fossil forms. During the 1930’s, Dr Barnum Brown from the American Museum of Natural History had dug extensively along the western slopes of the Big Horn Range in his frenetic quest to find rare and large dinosaur specimens. Gastroliths were then largely overlooked.

It was not until “Rockhound Fever” was established in the population at large that gas-troliths became a popular item to collect and display. Situated almost in the centre of the USA, Wyoming has outcropping areas of rock which are rich in dinosaur remains. Strata formed in upper Jurassic (Morrison formation) and lower Cretaceous (Cloverly formation) times are exposed to the elements along the western scarps of the Big Horn Range.

The area lies about 200 kilome-ters east of Yellowstone National Park. To reach one of the most prolific collecting areas from this well known tourist mecca, follow Highway 14 through the city of Graybull, cross the Big Horn River and twenty or so kilometers further on, just past the town of Shell, turn north along the road which parallels Beaver Creek. Twenty to thirty kilometers up amongst the beautifully rainbow-

coloured arid, rocky landscape lie the historically important gastrolith collecting spots.

One of the fascinating features of gastroliths is their composition. As with our diamond-pecking chook, dinosaurs may also have been to some extent discriminat-ing in their selection of stones to be swallowed.

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The naked, decapitated body floating down the Fraser River one day in 1858 was just the beginning. Before the end of the year, more than 60 miners would be dead in one of the bloodiest clashes in Canadian history. The Fraser Canyon War was basically a battle between the interests of First Nations—primarily the Sto:lo—and miners who had flooded into the valley in Canada’s first gold rush. But it was more than a cowboys-and-Indians turf war. It was an event that demanded a military presence, marking Britain’s first real attempts to police its mainland territory, which was under real threat of American annexation. A month after the war began, that territory officially became the Colony of British Columbia. And the war would see the last attempts at treaty making before Britain’s priorities changed from fur trading to development.

Until 1858, the shores of the Fraser River had been the summer home and fishing grounds of various First Nations. Then a small group of men found gold in the river. When their supplies ran out, they went to Fort Langley to re-stock and word of their find spread like wildfire. Soon American papers began splashing out headlines crying “Gold! Gold! Gold!” and hopeful prospectors—many remnants of the California gold rush—headed north to stake their claims.

On April 3, the first group arrived in Victoria. The Commodore sailed in with 450 passengers. At the time, that was more than the colonial capital’s entire Caucasian popula-tion. By summer, some 20,000

people had turned the village into a tent city as they began their migration upriver in search of the gold. The gold they wanted was in the gravel bars along the Fraser. As the miners arrived, they found the river swollen with spring run-off, so they set up camp and waited. For the Sto:lo, life had been pretty good along that particular stretch of the Fraser up until then. About 3,500 were living in relative peace with the 100 or so non-native settlers, and fighting off the occasional Yukletaw and Haida raiding parties.

But that summer, they returned to the Fraser and found thousands of drunken, rowdy prospectors. The miners developed a bad reputa-tion—they were rude, stole fish, attacked and raped the natives. And they were competition for the gold. By June, Governor James Douglas realized the situation on the Fraser was getting tense. A First Nations man was shot at Hill’s Bar, and a retaliatory killing only made the miners more edgy. To defuse the situation, Douglas ordered the miners off half of Hill’s Bar and reserved it for First Nations. Miners would have to obtain a permit to work there. This would be the last time a B.C. politician would sincerely negotiate treaties for about 140 years.

Douglas was a sympathetic ear for the Sto:lo. Born in British Guyana, he married a woman with a First Nations mother. Douglas was a Hudson’s Bay Company man, and the HBC relied on various First Nations as suppliers. He’d commanded the fort at Victoria before becoming governor of the island colony. Seeing the gold rush and knowing the annexation-ist (and anti-Indian) bent of the

Americans, he declared himself governor of the mainland colony as well—an act that would eventu-ally be supported by London, and would ultimately lead to the creation of British Columbia. “Such stopgap measures, however, ultimately proved inad-equate to stem the rapidly dete-riorating situation,” writes Keith Thor Carlson, a history professor at the University of Saskatchewan. In July, the inevitable blow-up occurred. A miner apparently raped a Sto:lo girl. In retribution, the Sto:lo killed and decapitated him, and sent his naked corpse floating down the river. He was followed by three more miners, also naked and headless. (The place has ever since been known as “Deadman’s Eddy.”) Thus began the Fraser Canyon War. In the weeks that followed, the miners waged a bloody campaign against the Sto:lo and Nlakapamux. One American regiment, commanded by Captain Charles Rouse sacked five com-munities and, according to some reports, killed two score First Nations people. It was a short war, but a bloody one.

Eventually some of the more moderate on the miners’ side met up with Liquitem, a Sto:lo chief, and a Nlakapamuk chief called Spintlum. Liquitem, Splintlum and an American miner named Snyder negotiated a peaceful end to the conflict, which had seen some 60 deaths on the miners’ side and many more Sto:lo and Nlakapa-mux. Liquitem and Spintlum then went upriver to meet with other chiefs and get their support for peace.

“By the time the Colonial Office’s concerns were relayed to Douglas,” wrote Carlson, “the warring Aboriginal and American forces had themselves concluded a succession of hastily conceived ‘peace treaties,’ bringing a tenuous end to the bloodshed and

There are over 4000 minerals recognized by the International Commission on New Minerals and Mineral Names, each year scientist add dozens of others. Most you will never hear of, most are insignificant, at least to rockhounds or geologists, and most are found in only one small location, usually they are extremely rare. One of these minerals which has been found is Moganite, and it is not rare. So then why haven’t you found any, you have! In the November issue of National Geographic, there was a small article about Princeton min-eralogist Peter Heaney and Jeffrey Post head of the Smithsonian Institution’s Department of Mineral Sciences, learned about the new mineral from reading an obscure German scientific journal, which said the new mineral was found in Quartz from Mogan in the Canary Islands.

Heaney and Post began to study quartz in the museum’s collection using X-ray diffraction and electron microscopes. It was found in almost all of the fine grained Quartz and their collection is from all over the world!! And it is in your collection too! Don’t look now, because Moganite is invisible to the naked eye. Only a variation in atomic structure distinguishes the quartz crystals from that of Moganite. Moganite indicates the presence of OIL, so in the future Moganite may help pinpoint petroleum deposits

in oil exploration. You may not be able to see it but at least you know its there, and when you introduce you next quartz specimen you can say its, it’s a specimen of Moganite and Quartz.

Maybe one day you’ll hear of some oil exploration using the electron and x-ray diffraction microscopes looking for one of the newest minerals Moganite

Moganite Quartzin

by Lowell Bailey WARBy Craig Saunders

B.C. born of bloodshed

Fraser Canyon 1858

by De MorganQuartzsite Field Trip #4

Although this trip does not technically qualify as the Quartz-site area, I’m counting it into the 5 trips, because we left from Quartzsite. We travelled into California, and it was a good hour and a half drive to get to the geode site. We stopped on a hilltop, and Cam Bacon, our trip leader, picked up a nice, small geode with crystals inside. We knew we were on the right track to find the Hauser Geode Beds of California!

We left the small geode there, hoping for bigger and better finds, and continued on to the best site, a few miles farther up the road. The day was hot, and we all had plenty of water with us to keep hydrated.

Once parked, we faced a good-sized hill. Ida Bacon, 90, sat in the shade, and watched the work. John Dool and Mike, went down into the dry creek bed, with their shovels and picks, and dug. The results were worth the digging, as they had each a bucket of geodes at the end of the day. Rather than smash them, and risk smashing the crystals, they decided to cut them at home. Some of them had good signals for an agatized interior.

Bob and I scouted around the hill, climbing higher in search of the round geodes. We should

have realized that round rock rolls downhill! We found no geodes, but there was a very hard jasper seam, similar in colour and markings to the famous and sought after bruneau jasper. We broke out some chunks for cutting and slabbing. The material had conchoidal fractures with a very sharp edge, and was extremely fine-grained. I am certain it will take a good polish.

Cam chose to dig a few hundred yards back up the gravel road, and he found an area where nearly every boulder was loaded with a lot of seamy agate, vugs with small crystals, and botroidal agate. I picked up a few small

pieces, that had a chalcyd-ony coating with amazing pisolitic bumps on it.

We gathered at the end of the day, to take a few photos, and discuss the finds of the day. Everyone had material to take home, and we all had a good time

digging and searching for interest-ing rocks. Thanks for taking us, Cam!

The Hauser Beds of California

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"Before the end of the year, more than 60 miners would be

dead in one of the bloodiest clashes in Canadian history."


Whenever we grind or polish anything, we make fine dust, fine particles calledparticulates. In our clubhouses, some particulates can be seen in the air, but some aretoo fine to be visible. We don’t worry about them because they “are not there” (we can’tsee them). We grind with water or oil, which keeps down the dust. We also wearaprons to keep the spray from our clothes. When the droplets dry out, then we haveparticulates on our aprons. We wipe them off and that takes care of the problem. What about the particulates that sprayed into the air instead of onto our clothes? They dry out in the air and end up as solid particulates. So even if we grind wet, there are solid as well as liquid particles produced in the air.

Fine particulates are defined as solid or liquid matter in a finely divided state, specifically smaller than 0.0001 meter (or 10 microm-eters) in size. “Dust” this size is breathed easily all the way into the lung, down to its deepest parts. Coarser particles are caught in the nose and throat, and are expelled. They are generally no problem. With the fine particulates, though, we are not so lucky. Once deep in the lung, they take up residence and cannot be removed. These are the ones to worry about, especially when they are less than 5 microm-eters in diameter. All particles will settle out to the ground eventu-ally, so perhaps we can just wait and they will go away. Not so, because such fine particulates stay suspended in air almostindefinitely. Part of the reason is that they are similar in size to large

molecules and are kept in motion by the impact of air molecules that are also in constant motion. Testsmade recently in California measured the particles left in the air from fireworks. Particles were still detected on July 19 from the July 4 fireworks. Why worry about these fine particulates? They’re inert, aren’t they? That depends onthe chemical nature of the dust. Many of our cabbing or faceting materials are silicates, the most abundant minerals on the face of the earth, and most silicates contain free silica. Silica and silicates make silica and silicate dust. Silica is the worst because of the way the body tries to ac-commodate the deposition of such dusts in the deep lung. The reaction of the body is to try to protect itself. It creates a sac around the particle which is on the inner surface of the lung. The growth of cells to produce the sac is risky in that it may produce cells randomly and end up as cancer.That takes years for the slowly developing forms of silicosis, but eventually your body or mine may or may not be able to adapt suc-cessfully to the situation. Slowly developing forms of “dusty lung disease”, bronchitis or silicosis are the ones most artists and craftsmen need to worry about.

Breathing such dusts from grinding or faceting may never be a problem if you are old enough to die of something else first. Failing that, it is a crapshoot to breathe such dusts. The conclusion is that it is a risk I don’t care to take. As an example, I have bought a number of uncut opals over the years, but have never cut one until I recently had a ventilation hood installed over my cutting area. Opals are silicates. Many other minerals are not silicates, but their dust is toxic for different reasons. The same criteria apply to them as far as breathing the dust is concerned, but that is the topic of another safety article and so is

asbestos, a silicate. Which silicas are toxic? Crystalline silica is highly toxic, causing silicosis. After about 10 or 20 years, chest X-rays begin to show scar tissue. The first symptoms are a dry cough

facilitating non-Native access to Fraser River gold.” After the Fraser Canyon War, which came at the same time as Europe’s rapid industrialization and changing priorities for capitalists in B.C., the relationship between First Nations and Europeans would forever be changed. Douglas may have been sympathetic to the needs and desires of First Nations, but by war’s end, his priorities had been decided for him. Industry and settlement became paramount, and the Colonial Office in London made it clear that no Indian would be allowed to get in the way. The Fraser Canyon War is more than just a fascinating and little-known fight. It’s one that illustrates

the anti-treaty attitudes in the colony—attitudes that have left British Columbia in a terrible legal mess.

The province never recognized the authority of the Royal Proclama-tion of 1763, in which King George commanded that treaties would be negotiated with First Nations prior to settlement. This refusal led ultimately to painful and costly court cases, including the historic Delgamuukw v. British Columbia, in 1997, perhaps Canada’s biggest and most famous land claims case, involving the Gitksan and Wet’suwet’en nations and the ownership of some 58,000 square kilometres of British Columbia.

The war also changed the nature of the young colony’s border. Only 140 years ago, it was a barely recognized thing. It existed at the whim of the individual and could be ignored in the interests of personal preference or economic mobility. With regiments of American militia fighting on the British side of it, the border became a real issue for Douglas, and the Fraser Canyon War forced his hand. He had to march in and assert his authority, making the 49th parallel more than an invisible line through the mountains. And so, with the close of the Fraser Canyon War, the stage was set for events that would take generations to play out.

Minerals have been used for adornment for millennia. The Egyptians made an extensive use of many familiar minerals, and, according to recent discoveries, synthesized other compounds using relatively sophisticated chemical techniques.Egyptians were fond of eye and face coloration of white, green and black. Generally these were mineral powders mixed into pastes with fats. Minerals commonly used to make black powders were galena (PbS), manganese oxides such as pyrolusite, magnetite (iron oxide), cuprite and tenorite (copper oxides), and stibnite (antimony sulfide).Green eye paints used malachite (copper carbonate) and chryso-colla (hydrated copper silicate). White face paint often came often from cerussite (lead carbonate). One might speculate on the health effects of spreading such poisonous compounds thickly over one's face!The above mentioned minerals are common in deposits accessible

to the Egyptians. Recent work on cosmetic powders preserved in their original containers and stored in the Louvre has turned up several rare minerals used as pigments. These minerals were either very rare or are unknown in Egyptian deposits. These are phosgenite (a lead chlorocar-bonate) and laurionite( a lead chlor-hydroxide). Both would be suitable for white pigments, if found in quantity. Laurionite is a famous mineral from the ancient deposits at Laurium Greece, where it formed by the action of salty water on slags. It also occurs rarely in other oxidized zones over ore deposits, such as in Cornwall, England. Phosgenite is a bit more common, and can form with laurionite and other minerals in oxidized zones. The conditions of preservation of these minerals in Egyptian cosmetics make it unlikely that they are the effects of subsequent weathering of the cosmetics, but were originally pigment components.Walter et. al., in a recent article in Nature, speculate that the phosgenite and laurionite were synthesized by the Egyptians. Both could form from mixtures of smelted lead oxides in the presence of carbonate and salt

water. Walker and colleagues were able to form these minerals using techniques accessible to the ancient Egyptians. They followed recipes for medicines described on papyrus. This called for lead oxide mixed in water with salt, natron. The reaction is slow and delicate, but produced laurionite that matches morphologically that found as face paint in Egyptian tombs. A similar technique should produce phosgenite. The delicacy of the process suggests a surpris-ing knowledge of wet-chemical techniques 4,000 years ago. Clues for their formation could have come from observations of during the processingof galena or weathering of lead articles. These papyrus list in addition, over 100 recipes using minerals or synthesized compounds or treatment of a variety of ailments.It is apparent that ancient Egypt harbored its own creative sci-entists inspired by observations on minerals to create desired (if unhealthy) products.

References:- Lucas, A., 1962, Ancient Egyptian Materials and Industries, 4th edition revised by J.R. Harris, London, Edward Arnold Publishers.Walter, P. et. al., 1999, "Making Make-up in Ancient Egypt", Nature, vol. 397, p. 483-484.

Cosmetic Minerals of

Ancient Egyptby Dr. Bill Cordua, University of Wisconsin-River Falls

/////It’s Just DustSAFETY

Isn’t It?

Part I

By Peter R. Girardot, PhD Chair, Safety Committee, SCFMS from the American Federation of Mineralogical Societies

By Andrew Alden, The Earth’s crust is an extremely thin layer of rock, like the skin of an apple in relative terms. It amounts to less than half of 1 percent of the planet. But the crust is exceptionally important, and not just because we live on it.

The crust can be thicker than 80 kilometers in some spots, less than one kilometer in others. Underneath it is the mantle, a layer of rock some 2700 kilometers thick that accounts for the bulk of the Earth. The crust is primarily made of granite and basalt while the mantle beneath is made of peridotite. More about all that below.

Discovery of the CrustUntil just a century ago, we didn’t know the Earth has a crust. From astronomical measurements, we knew in the late 1800s that Earth wobbles in relation to the sky as if it had a large, dense core. Beyond that we had no clue, until the advent of seismology. Even today, almost all we know for sure about the deep Earth comes from just one type of evidence: the speed of sound in rock as measured using seismic waves, usually called seismic velocity. The rest is known from intricate, subtle modeling studies.

In 1909 the seismologist Andrija Mohorovicic published a paper estab-lishing that about 50 kilometers deep in the Earth there is a sudden change in seismic velocity—a discontinuity of some sort. The discontinuity makes the seismic waves bounce (reflect)

The Earth’s Crust:

an introduction


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and refract (bend), just as light behaves at the discontinuity between water and air. Ever since, that discontinuity, the Mohorovicic discontinuity or “Moho,” has been accepted as the boundary between the crust and the mantle beneath.

Crusts and PlatesThe crust is not the same thing as the plates of plate tectonics. Plates are thicker than the crust and consist of the crust and the shallow mantle just beneath it; the combination is stiff and brittle and is called the lithosphere (“stony layer” in scientific Latin). The lithospheric plates lie on top of a layer of softer, more plastic mantle rock (the asthenosphere or “weak layer”) that allows the plates to move slowly upon it like a raft in thick mud.

We know that the Earth’s crust is made of two grand categories of rocks: basaltic and granitic. Basaltic rocks underlie the seafloors and granitic rocks make up the continents. The seismic velocities of these rock types in the lab match the velocities in the crust down to the Moho, so we’re pretty sure that the Moho marks a real change in rock chemistry. The Moho isn’t a perfect boundary, because some crustal rocks and mantle rocks can masquerade as the other, but even so everyone who talks about the crust, whether in seismological or petrological terms, fortunately means the same thing. In general, then, the crust has two types, oceanic crust and continental crust.

Oceanic CrustOceanic crust covers about 60 percent of the Earth’s surface. Oceanic crust is thin and young—no more than about 20 km thick and never older than about 180 million years. Everything older has been pulled underneath the continents by subduction. Oceanic crust is born at the midocean ridges, where pressure upon the underlying mantle is released and the peridotite there begins to melt in response. The part that melts becomes basaltic lava, which rises and erupts while the remaining peridotite becomes depleted.

The midocean ridges migrate over the Earth like Roombas, extracting the basaltic component from the mantle as they go. What that means has to do with rock chemistry. Basaltic rocks contain more silicon and aluminum than the peridotite left behind, which has more iron and magnesium. Basaltic rocks are less dense. In terms of minerals, basalt has more feldspar and amphibole, less olivine and pyroxene, than peridotite. In geologist’s shorthand, oceanic crust is mafic while oceanic mantle is ultramafic.

Oceanic crust, being so thin, is a very small fraction of the Earth—about 0.1 percent—but its life cycle serves to refine the rocks of the upper mantle into new rocks with a lighter blend of elements. It also extracts the so-called incompatible elements, which don’t fit into mantle minerals and move into the liquid melt. These in turn move into the continental crust as plate tectonics proceeds.

Continental CrustContinental crust is thick and old—on average about 50 km thick and about 2 billion years old—and it covers about 40 percent of the planet. Whereas almost all of the oceanic crust is underwater, most of the continental crust is exposed to the air. The continents slowly grow over geologic time as oceanic crust and seafloor sediments are pulled beneath them by subduction. The descending basalts have the water and incompat-ible elements squeezed out of them, and this material rises to trigger more melting in the so-called subduction factory.

The continental crust is made of granitic rocks, which have even more silicon and aluminum than the basaltic oceanic crust; they also have more oxygen thanks to the

atmosphere. Granitic rocks are even less dense than basalt. In terms of minerals, granite has even more feldspar, less amphibole than basalt and almost no pyroxene or olivine, plus it has abundant quartz. In geologist’s shorthand, continental crust is felsic.

Continental crust makes up less than 0.4 percent of the Earth, but it represents the end product of a double refining process, first at midocean ridges and second at subduction zones. The total amount of continental crust is slowly growing.

The incompatible elements that end up in the continents are important because they include the major radioactive elements uranium, thorium and potassium. They create heat, which makes the continents act like electric blankets on top of the mantle. The heat also softens thick places in the crust, like the Tibetan Plateau, and makes them spread sideways.

Continental crust is too buoyant to return to the mantle. When continents collide, the crust can thicken to almost 100 km, but that is temporary. The limestones and other sedimentary rocks that form on the continents are likewise lighter than basalt. Even the sand and clay that is washed off into the sea returns to the continents on the conveyor belt of the oceanic crust. Continents are truly permanent, self-sustaining features of the Earth’s surface.

www.chapman.australianmuseum.netThe Albert Chapman Mineral Collection

This exceptional collection is renowned worldwide for its miner-alogical diversity, crystal perfection, aesthetic appeal and high Australian content. The collection was featured in the Australia issue of Mineralogical Record in 1988.

Interesting

Websiteswww.benchtube.comJewelry Making Videos

BenchTube is Ganoksin video sharing area for jewelers and met-alsmiths (and for those interested in jewelry and gemstones). Participa-tion is absolutely free!

Beer Can TabsWendy Leversage, Richmond Club, is collecting the tabs from beer/pop cans , the proceeds go to Guide Dog Training. The company that buys the tabs gives double dollars because it goes to a charity. This a great cause, save your tabs for Wendy.

WANTED


Precious Opals

Okanagan Opal Inc.

from Canada’s first precious opal deposit

7879 Hwy 97 - 4 miles North of Vernon Ph: (250) 542-1103 Fax: (250) 542-7115 [email protected] www.opalscanada.com

Opal Cutting Shop ∙ Retail Store ∙ Opal Digging

For many years I've heard talk of a Rock & Gem Show / Sale Field trips at a place called Madras Oregon ; finally I have the time off and I actually got to go. On June 30 my mom & I left for the magical place called PowWow Madras. We stayed at Riversedge in Leaven-worth Wash.( what a great place to stay the Wenatchee River at your door step, pool & hot tub ) great rooms great prices. To avoid the border line ups expected with the Canadian Holiday July 1st.

We took Hwy. 97 south thru Yakima it follows a hilly route along the desert with large tracts of hay fields. It was very hot. So hot my mom actually ask for the air-conditioning to be turned on. In all the years of going to Arizona

and other places she has NEVER asked me to turn it on! Of course because it was so hot and steep hills I did not want to chance overheating the car so did not turn it on. We got to Madras at 3pm and checked in our motel ( recommended by Diane Bowman ) Sonny's, We even had a message waiting from Ron Vauthrin saying he would be down the following dre's a great pool there too. It is only 3 blocks to the Pow Wow site so I went to register and bought a t-shirt. At that time I also bought some silver from Altamont. The Fairgrounds was all set up with 75 dealers and they had a list of the field trips. You meet at the Fairgrounds at 8 am every morning .We bought A&W supper and KFC for the field trip.July 2 Thurs.Up early and ready to rockhound. We were at the Fairgrounds early enough to check for anyone we

might know. 7:30 Met some very nice guys from South Dakota Mike & Dale they gave us some rock from S.D, we gave them Cams book on Arizona. The Field trip started on time with everyone signing a release and apx. 70 vehicles. It was to the Naches Ranch north on Hwy. 97 right turn off the hwy. past the Richardson Ranch turn off. And follow up

valley very pretty area junipers , sage and very little water. Good road newly paved then we turned off on the gravel, grass. Past the Polka Dot Ranch we stopped and there every where you

looked were jasper pieces. There were some beautiful browns & cream colours and some white with the brown dots.There was a lot of collecting in a small area , great parking not hard to find something of interest. Our new South Dakota friends gave

MADRAS 2009

by Desert Roses

McDonalds Wood backhoe

us some rock. There were some opallized pieces too. Many if the rock hounds had brought their dogs and there was very little disagreements between any of them ( both the dogs or the rock hounds ) Everyone seemed well pleased with what they found. There was a scale there and you paid $ 1 a pound on site so if you didn't want it you didn't have to take it. We left there around noon, mom & I went to McDonalds while others stopped at the RichardsonsRanch. We were back at Madras by 2 and I used the pool. Later we went back to the Fairgrounds for the evenings entertainment. Ken & Silvia arrived .We returned to our motel by 10 to prepare for July 3 trip.

Mean while Ron Vauthrin said we should skip this field trip for petrified wood /jasper at the Morrison Ranch and go to the Richardsons Ranch as they were opening up the old White Plume Agate site for Iday only. Mom & I were up by 6 am and had the complimentary bkfts. while we waited for Ron who slept in. Albert stopped in on the way to Richard-sons. We got going by 8:10.Very hot and sunny again. We stopped and got directions a the store at Richardsons and we followed Ron. It was a dry dusty road with an area of about 6 inches of very fine dust for about 100 feet a the last of the road. Thesite was a creek bed that they had bulldozed out to the bed rock and there were about 10 people already there pounding but mostly scrapping. We searched around and dug out a few thunder eggs , we were directed to another site just up the way. We also went there , there were about another 20 or so people hammering away at the walls for thunder eggs. The "Priddy Plume" There were some nice sample found and some of the left overs from the previous people. Including a small thunder egg Vi that had red Opal in it.

There were some great strange crystals and some moss found. Weigh in was back at the main ranch site. It was a beautiful drive with some fantastic scenery . There were signs pointing to other sites throughout the ranch. We headed back to the motel temp. in the high 90scloudless Swimming pool was very nice. Meet up with Sharon, Am Hamlin , Frank & Betty Tiemey and others a the Ding Ho, there were 15 for dinner and everyone ordered 1 item and we shared great time great people. Back to the fairgrounds for the auction of course I spent some money but I did keep it under $ 100 . Beautiful clear night motel very busy for the weekend July 4 U. S holiday. Some of the B.C. ers staying at Prineville .

Sat. July 4 Fieldtrip to the McDonald Ranch, towards Richardsons turn right at the red barn offhwy. 97 north, follow to Watson Creek Rd. road, up and over the hill and dale .Climbing to another hill the yellow flowers just starting and some interesting red berries again cloudless and hot. Past old granaries continue to the left and down a slight incline and left . A big area for parking the many trucks. There on the ground many pieces of petrified woods some opalized with many colours showing. The rancher had dug up a fresh patch for us to sift thru and there was plenty to go around. We stayed and enjoyed the view, there were big enough junipers

to provide some shade. Again there was a second site down the road and over a small valley. The second site was $ 2 a pound Angel Wing Agate and there was a nice young man taking the $ .

There were a couple people working on a huge piece of blue agate, again there was plenty to go around you could work hard or easy . From black to pale blue there was lots of choice even some petrified mud balls. There was a big muddy puddle there that all the dogs were enjoying a very interesting place too. I paid the boy in U. S. $ 2 bill so he gave me a brake because he collects those. I got a nice display geode of botryoidal agate .and a few other pieces. It was

very hot there too. There were thunder egg beds somewhere there too we decided to head out. At the forks in the road we were debating the way out when Ron & another car came up they'd gone the wrong way, so we were on the right road. Back at adras mom had a milkshake to cool down. It is desert and it was very hot. Fairgrounds to listen to music unfortunately there was a mike problem but they tried anyways. We won a door prize of$5 for the grocery store.Some clouds moved in and we had a natural light show ( lighten-ing ) before the real fireworks started.

July 5 Thin clouds some of the rock hounds pulling out today, it's the last day we did another field trip for thunder eggs. A different ranch on the north side this time thru

Priddy Pit


by De Morgan

We donned our hard hats, and travelled in a convoy to three locations around the cavernous multi-layered pit of the Similco Mine in Princeton, B.C. We felt very fortunate in that we were invited to visit the mine by Rhian Williams, who is currently working at the mine. Rhian’s father and mother, Dr. David and Anne Williams are members of the Abbotsford Rockhound club, and organized a field trip for the rockhounds, to this location. This was a first time visit for our group, and many of us have longed to see the inside of this mine for many years. Mining companies prefer not to have visitors because of liability issues, so it was a rare privilege to be given the opportu-nity to visit the mine site.

David, Anne, Rhian and the security guard led the way to the first stop. We were in a flat circular

area, with tailings piled around the edge We found an abundance of chalcopyrite, in an attractive surface glitter. There were surfaces shot with bornite, and it shone with purple and blue in the warm Princeton sun.

After a half hour, we moved to the second spot, an elongated large area with piles of rock on each side. Here we stopped for lunch, and were able to drive along the site. While were were eating, Harley and Livia Waterson made the find of the trip. Each had a ten pound rock of biotite crystals (black mica) on one side, and brilliant purple-blue, peacock colours of bornite on the other side. We went back to the spot where they made their big find and picked up some of the small, attractive pieces that were left behind. They made very interest-ing rock to collect as specimens, for they were artfully formed, with the two minerals intertwined. Our final stop, and the climax of the trip, was a look at the spiral road

down into the mine pit, and further rockhounding in the upper area. We posed for pictures, and began to look around for specimens. I found a cream-coloured aplite with dendrites, formed from the black manganese oxide.

Sharp-eyed Bob Morgan, saw from a distance, a vertical pegmatite dike of biotite, bornite and pink feldspar that he estimated to be about fifteen feet wide, running though the rock wall at the side of the pit. The roadside

near the pit also had attractive samples of bornite, with the biotite and feldspar that had been trucked up from the mine, and were waiting for us to pick them up. After very little time our bags were full. We had a fabulous day, with exciting rockhounding. I would like

to give special thanks to the Williams family, and the Similco security guard, for taking us to this location and arranging this wonderful field trip. It would not have been possible without you. As well, I would like to offer our sincere appreciation

for allowing this field trip to be possible, to the mine manager, Eugene Mehr, and thanks to the other employees who helped, Pat Kerr, Rich Joyce and Mark Rein. We had a wonderful field trip.

The Best Field Trip Similco Mine

Revamped ROM Mineral Gallery

a Must-SeeSubmitted by John Bowman, Eastern Correspondent.

Last fall, the mineral collection at the Royal Ontario Museum re-opened after being closed for many months undergoing renovations. We recently had the chance to visit the new gallery while in Toronto, and came away very impressed. On top of the reopened, gallery, until November there is also an excellent special exhibition of the Michael Scott private collection of gems.

Those of you who have looked at mineral collections in museums will know that it is not easy to properly display minerals in a way that shows off their colour and conveys the information rockhounds like to know regarding each specimen. The new mineral gallery at the ROM, called the Teck Suite of Galleries – Earth’s Treasures, does the best job that we have seen to date of carrying this off. Each of the glass display

cabinets has a computer touch screen at each side of the case, where you simply touch the picture of the specimen you are interested in to get more detailed informa-tion on where it came from, its chemical composition, etc. This is a great way to provide a lot of information without cluttering up the display case with all sorts of signage.

We spent hours looking at the display cases so I will not go into detail regarding all of the minerals on display. Suffice it to say that there are excellent specimens of just about every mineral you can think of. There are a few galleries of minerals from specific localities, such as the Mont Ste. Hilaire locality in Quebec. There are a few large spec-tacular specimens that have their own cases including a goethite cast from Greece, a large sheet of natural copper from Michigan, and a large specimen of barite desert roses. There is also an extensive meteorite collection for anyone who is interested in space rock. There is also an ongoing video presentation that I found interest-ing, which shows video from the various localities around the world where the museum’s specimens came from.

The Michael Scott collection is worthy of a visit in its own right. It is a spectacular collection of rough and cut gems, including a number of different carvings from Germany’s famous Idar-Oberstein area. There is everything from a 1600 carat tanzanite crystal, a beautiful necklace made with 165 carats of spessartine garnets, a fantastic carved agate starfish, and a 22,700 carat tourmaline crystal from California. There

is also a beautiful frog carved from a chunk of ruby-zoisite, a collection of dragonfly gemstone brooches, a wonderful collection of watermelon tourmaline crystals from various localities, and a carved bust of Mephisto made of ruby.

If you are in the Toronto area for business or

pleasure, take the time to visit the ROM. Allow yourself a few hours as it will take that long to see the fabulous collection of gems and minerals. Congratulations to the museum for doing an excellent job of showing off their wonderful mineral collection.

another nice area, great view of Mt. Hood and extinct volcanoes. Back to Madras by 12:30 Spent the rest of the day at the dealers. They had a lot of rough rock from the different states which is wonderful to see. The prices were good and fair. I would recommend going to the Pow Wow at Madras

but take lots of water. The people of the town are friendly and ap-preciate the $ we spend. The sheriff welcomed all and noted the good we bring to the area. It is a well organized event and partici-pation of the ranchers is great. I really enjoyed it and would return hopefully 2010. There is plenty of

camping at the Fairgrounds and local motels ect. at reasonable rates. Keep in mind there are the usual dangers associated with the desert such as heat, rattle snakes, cactus . There were some vehicle casualties such as punctured gas tanks & flat tires.

Agate Starfish

Geothite


Club Contact: Lita Hansen(250) [email protected]

Club Contact: Dale Daignault (250) [email protected]

Rockhounder Summer 2009B.C. Around the Clubs

Creative Jewellers Guild of B.C.

Alberni Valley Rock & Gem Club

Abbotsford Rock & Gem Club

Richmond Gem & Mineral Club

Courtenay Gem & Mineral Club

Cowichan Valley Rockhounds

Hastings Center Rockhounds

Thompson Valley Rock Club

Ripple Rock Gem & Mineral Club

Selkirk Rock & Mineral Club

Port Moody Rock & Gem Club

Victoria Lapidary & Mineral Society

Yellowhead Lapidary Club

For More Information

Club Contact: Nacy Dickson (604) 444-4464

[email protected]

Club Contact: Maria Tomsich(604) 224-1951

[email protected]

Club Contacts: Dave West (250) 723-0281

[email protected]

Club Contact: David Williams(604) 870-1024

[email protected]

Club Contact: Eric Kemp(604) 278-5141

Club Contact: Jack Boyes(250) 337-8461

[email protected]

Club Contact: Gene Leavitt(250) 246-4571

[email protected]

Club Contact: Linda Foy(604) 421-1068

Club Contact: Derek Neumann, (250)[email protected]

Club Contact: Emily Faak(250) [email protected]

Club Contact: Maureen Kromha(250) 367-9605

Club Contact: Andrew Danneffel(250) 942-0617

Club Contact: Cameron Speedie, (250) 385-0597 [email protected]

about the BC Lapidary Society or a club near you, visit us onlinewww.lapidary.bc.ca

Burnaby Laphounds Club

Creston Valley Prospectors and Lapidary Club

Club Contact: Wally Remin, (250) 428-0413

[email protected]

Fraser Valley Rock & Gem ClubClub Contact: Robert Brown,

(604) 794 - 7296 [email protected]

Maple Ridge Lapidary ClubClub Contact: Walt Pinder(604) 826-2342

Lakes District Rock & Gem ClubClub Contact: Leanne Miranda, 250-698-7337 [email protected]

Cowichan Valley RockhoundsWe continue with workshop sessions throughout the summer. As should be this time of year members are busy holidaying, fishing, gardening and all those other good weather activities and yet we still have members wanting to get together to continue with their hobby.

The VI shows and Gemboree are over and the Cobble Hill Fair preparations for our club are well underway, to be held the last weekend in August. We’re hoping to get together for a BBQ the Monday following to celebrate and slide back into our regular monthly meetings and club business. Several weeks ago six of us, Doris and Gord Meyer, Donna and Ken Buccholz and Mike and I headed to Prineville. After a stop at Shipwreck Beads in Lacey WA and another at Camping World we arrived at the Prineville Crook County Fairgrounds. What a lovely RV Park they have as part of the fairground complex – we’d all go back to Prineville just to tour the area. This is a big rodeo weekend at Prineville with the High School Rodeo Championships and on Sunday an open rodeo that was well attended. There was enter-tainment in the evenings from 9 to 2 and yet it was very civilized and well managed.

We stayed in Prineville until the Tues. following their PowWow, visiting Elkins Rock Shop (of course, three times) Maury Mtn., a petrified wood field trip and several self-directed rock/photo opportunities including the reservoir before heading to Madras. Michele and Brent Heath were also down that way but we didn’t see each other. I have not seen so much wire wrapped

jewelry as at Prineville, varied and lovely. When we had been planning our trip there was talk of including Plush and sunstone hunting. Good thing we didn’t go as it was and had been raining heavily with access difficult and water pouring into the mines. The prospect of flash floods doesn’t appeal to me one bit. The Jefferson County RV Park at their fairgrounds is a parking lot on gravel/rock and let me tell you the folks driving through think they’re still on the freeway. Hot, hot and hot! and dusty dusty and so on. Our two furry girls certainly enjoyed the air conditioning as did we.

Apparently Jefferson County is the poorest county in Oregon with 20% unemployment, and it was very evident. A field trip for replacement wood had sixty vehicles lined up raring to go. We met our neighbours at the RV Park, from Albany who also winter in Yuma. A lot of story-telling and we even learned how to catch catfish with a tire?! Donna spent one afternoon showing the three ladies wire wrapping basics – what a nice group. We met up with Sharon and Jim from the Parksville Club and saw a few of the Ripple Rock ladies in the distance bent over admiring the goodies on the tables. Add in Richardson’s Rock Ranch, Broken Bow Bead Shop, shopping and more shopping at the Pow Wow, a few BBQ get-togethers and a great time was had by all. Doris and Gord headed out to Sisters, a quick trip to the coast and home and Sheila and Gary Scott joined the four of us for Madras, Sisters and a week trip up the Oregon Coast. On July 4th we visited Sisters, drove a very picturesque route to Roseburg for a lovely

dinner out followed by a spec-tacular fireworks display. I just can’t imagine being in the US on the 4th without seeing fireworks. The next day we were in Bandon where we spent two nights on beaches collecting and the Old Town Shopping. Clam chowder in regular bowls, then sourdough bowls, fish and chips, collecting agates, walking at fossil beach by the lighthouse, wonderful days.

The next time you are in Bandon visit the Walk Through Safari south of town, Jailhouse Rocks (stones, beads, jewellery- he is a rockhound) and Riverview Gems and Gifts (they are Rockhounds-stones, beads, jewellery) – be prepared to spend! Just north of Florence on the left is the US Bead Warehouse (Sweet Creek Inc.) stone beads, books, findings galore! On to Newport for another two nights, the Aquarium is a must see in addition to so many other places. A nice RV Park right on the river by the Aquarium with spectacular views of the bridge and old town across the way. Then Sheila and Gary found us a family pub with specials – 16 oz. steak (furry girls were happy that night), baked potato, salad for $9.99 and a large glass/pint of beer/ale for $2.50!! That’s the Tues. night special, good thing we don’t live close by. Wed. night was the Sizzler – two large skewers of shrimp (size of our prawns), baked potato, salad bar (chicken, two soups, taco bar, salad bar, fruit bar, ice cream bar) and beverage - $9.99! Good thing as we had shopped and were travelling with over 100 lb. of rock never mind the beads, bling and gifts. From Newport it was in and out of all the beach-side towns to Astoria then Kelso and back home. For six of us it was the first

PowWow adventure we’d been to and it was a really fun holiday with terrific travelling companions. Our furry kids loved having all the extra pats and hugs. If you have the opportunity to go for heavens’ sake GO! Our club plans on a few field trip outings this summer, then Cobble Hill Fair, in August there is a VI Zone meeting/BBQ, our club BBQ, September will be back to business as usual. Our Vice-President John Boland is moving to the Mainland this week and we will really miss him. John has such a pleasant and positive attitude and he was a pleasure to have as part of our membership. One of the Mainland Clubs will be lucky to have him as a member and we hope he visits us often. Life in the Cowichan Valley Rockhounds Club is good. We hope you all enjoy a very pleasant and safe summer and maybe we’ll meet on a rock pile somewhere along the way. On behalf of the Cowichan Valley Rockhounds, Ulla Williams.

FRASER VALLEY ROCK & GEM CLUBThe Fraser Valley Rock and Gem Club celebrated their fiftieth an-niversary by having a party from 5 to 8 pm on Friday, June 12th instead of holding their regular meeting that night. Our previous members were invited to join in as well as any members from other clubs to help celebrate this occasion.A bountiful array of food was enjoyed by the hungry crowd. There were displays of history from the past fifty years for viewing which created a lot of interest, plus an ongoing slide show. All the guests were able to choose a draw prize from a

Vernon Lapidary & Mineral Club


Around the Clubs Summer 2009

generous supply of rock related gifts. To round things off, Elsie Young, our charter member, cut the anniversary cake. It was a very congenial crowd and everyone seemed to enjoy mingling as all rockhounds do. This was a prelude to the annual show, “Crystal Dreams”, which will be held at the Old Age Pensioners’ Hall, 3015 - 273rd St., Aldergrove on September 26th and 27th from 10 am to 5 pm each day. It will be featuring displays of the various activities over the past fifty years along with our regular features including a silent auction, member displays, demonstra-tions, club dealers and door prizes. Admission is by donation. Refreshments will be provided by the ladies of the Royal Purple. Hope to see a good number of you for the conclusion of our fiftieth year celebrations.

Elsie Young, helping cut the Anniversary Cake

Vancouver Island Zone’s 2009 GemboreeBy Linda Strand, Corresponding Secretary, Vancouver Island Zone, 2008 to 2010

The Parksville and District Rock and Gem Club hosted this year’s Gemboree. We chose a spot that had some shelter as we were told some members were getting older and would prefer to have protec-tion from the uncertain weather of early June here in Paradise.

The location was the Coombs Fairground where there was plenty of room for dry camping and a covered shelter (barn). We also reserved a small hall for the BCLS “Book Lady”, Sharon Hamelin, to sell books. There was room in the building so we also invited Ross and Rose Thompson from Cour-tenay’s Eagle Gem & Gifts to bring supplies for sale. Both accepted, and they had a locked, secure, dry spot for their products. The signs went up around Coombs just before lunch on Friday the 5th. Folks arrived throughout the afternoon, and those who arrived early got to shop first at the slab sales tables, which were set up in the shelter. As it happened, the Coombs Community was having a potluck supper on the Fairgrounds and we were invited to join. So about fifteen of our Registrants brought potluck offerings, ate heartily with our neighbours, then returned to our end of the grounds for visiting. Saturday morning the sun shone brightly as our field trips got

underway. We offered a beach trip for lapidary quality material, a fossil trip and a gold panning trip. Those who didn’t go on a field trip spent the time visiting or shopping. We also set up the material for the rock auction and for the “tin can” auction.

About 2:30 we started the auction, and our masterful auctioneer, Claude Levesque, worked through the long table of rocks, success-fully finding bidders for each lot!

The tin can auction also moved a variety of things from one household to another. We are sure that many items will reappear next year!After the auctions were done, the tables were set up for our own potluck. The food was great and varied. Because our Club had received official word that we had become part of the BCLS in 1984, we felt justified in also celebrating our 25th Anniversary with BCLS. A local grocery store donated a huge cake, decorated with our club’s crest.

After supper we completed our Silent Auction and gave away Door Prizes. Then everyone pitched in to clean up. Some hearty souls sat around the campfire and visited while others returned home, satisfied with their treasures, we hope.

On Sunday morning we again joined in with others on the Fair-grounds for our breakfast. After breakfast and a final cleanup we had another special set of door prizes for the local organizers who registered and helped to clean up. We were done by noon on Sunday.The Parksville and District Rock and Gem Club have many people to thank for making this Gemboree a success. Sixty eight Registrants attended, mostly from Vancouver Island, but also from as far away as Salmon Arm! Thank you!

Registrants freely parted with money that goes into our Zone Bank Account. Thank you!Registrants and the BCLS donated material to auction. A special thank you must go to Max Baaske who donated many buckets of material, especially dumortierite and porphyry. Thank you!Local businesses donated items for door prizes. Thank you!And finally, we could not have done this without the active participation of our club members. Many of us had little or no experi-ence with a “Gemboree”, and we were carefully guided by the experienced (I am not saying old) members. Thank you!While the weekend was not perfect, we had a good time, came home with new “stuff”, and once again are glad to have found this rockhounding hobby and the fellowship that comes with it.

Gem & Mineral Federation of CanadaPresidents MessagePeter Hagar

I was in Manitoba recently to see a fossil discovery centre and told that Manitoba appears to be taking a strict approach to collect-ing fossils. Every fossil belongs to the province, which, I think is common to other Provinces. We asked about participating in fossil digs, and the people there were proud to say that their discovery centre is the only one among the Prairie Provinces allowing public digging. In terms of the public keeping anything they find, the answer is no. But I saw pictures of people with their finds, and in the case of something significant, you have naming rights. In Sas-katchewan, the great meteorite hunt goes on under the direction of researchers at the University of Alberta. They are recruiting volunteers, and although you can’t keep what you find, it goes to the researchers or the landowner- you get a picture taken of you and your find. When governments give you the verbal equivalent of a whack across the head with a rock hammer and say, “It’s not for people like you,” we have a problem, and we better start talking about it. Rockhounds liketo collect rocks and fossils, sometimes alter them, and even sell them. Apparently, we have become the wrong kind of people. It’s important to find out if that’s the intent of the lawmakers, or if they’re just a little fossil-boneheaded. With some com-munication, the real objectives can probably be met with more success. In Saskatchewan, every fossil is owned by the province. However, we can get permits to collect them, and even dispose of them (even after a bit of lapidary work.) The government people are willing to work with us on that, which should be encouraging.

While it may be bureaucratic, GMFC clubs ought to be a bit bureaucratic; based on our code of conduct: Promptly catalogue, identify and preserve specimens collected, and ensure that proper provision has been made for the ultimate disposition of your collec-tions to preserve this Heritage for future generations. Report unique geological, palaeontological and mineralogical occurrences, par-ticularly vertebrate finds, to your nearest museum, university, or the Geological Survey of Canada. If you review our code of conduct, our objectives about promoting education about palaeontology and Earth Sciences ought to be similar to the government pa-laeontologists. I think the critical importance of every single fossil in ones province needs to be examined carefully. The mines in each province destroy more fossils in a year than a century of rockhounds has collected, cut, cabbed and sold over the past century. With current digital photography, it seems that we can satisfy the government people, who are trying to protect a non-renewable resource, that what we collect is in good custody and will do more to promote education and interest about palaeontology and the Earth Sciences, than any other approach.

VACANCY The Gem and Mineral Federation of Canada have a vacancy for the office of Secretary. The positions main function is to record the minutes of the meetings and teleconferences. I know there must be many club secretaries, or retired secretaries doing excellent jobs for their clubs who would appreciate the promotion to the national level.

Contact:Peter Hagar at (306) -585-2560 or [email protected]


"Of course Tom being a guy just had to keep on climbing and was always on higher ground than myself. Cost him a black nail - Ouch, that had to hurt!"

Around the Clubs Summer 2009Parksville and District Rock and Gem ClubBy Linda Strand, Secretary

The past few months have been very busy for our Club. We now have 45 members. We met on the first Tuesday of each month from January to May. Meetings stopped for the summer and will begin again in September. Our Club co-hosted a Show in May with the Courtenay Gem & Mineral Club. This was a new and interesting experience for us. We shared the profit from the Show, and now have a little more cash in our bank account. We are grateful to the Courtenay Club for asking us to participate.

A month later we hosted the 2009 Gemboree. This also was a new experience for most of our members, but this too was a success. We generated enough revenue for the Vancouver Island Zone to pay its expenses for the next year. Because our club joined the BCLS in 1984, we celebrated with a 25th Anniversary Cake. We have created a cd with a time line and sample information sheets which we have passed on to the Victoria Lapidary and Mineral Society in the hope that they can build on the information we compiled.Our last activity before summer was our annual yummy potluck and auction. This was held at the home of our long time member, Marion Barclay. As usual her garden was lovely. Max Baaske had built a tarpaulin shelter that

was set up to shield people from both sun and rain. That afternoon protection from both the sun and the rain was necessary, but thanks to Max and his shelter, we stayed cool and dry. We had a lot of material to auction! An old-time member had donated her rock pile which had Texada porphyry and Salt Spring Island rhodonite among other treasures. Max Baaske also donated buckets of material. Other members donated plants, rock, finished products, and even one surprise bag. President and auctioneer, Claude Levesque, successfully auctioned off each lot, so a lot of material has shifted

into rockhounds hands for further use!

Our Treasurer, Mabel Baaske has kept our Club’s finances in superb order. We are very lucky to have members like Mabel, Max and Marion. They have the experience, skill and ability to guide the club. They are certainly valued by the inexperienced members of the Executive! Summer is now

upon us. It is time to recharge the rockhounding batteries before the next season of meetings and fieldtrips is upon us.

Port Moody Rock & Gem ClubOur last meeting before summer was a nice turn out. The actual meeting went smoothly and we had plenty of time to socialize, show our treasures and take in some refreshments. Thanks to Andrew for bringing the wonderful cheese selection and everyone else for the various beverages. Member, Suat, gave everyone attending a handy cloth tote bag from S&S Studio. Many thanks. Another special happening during the evening was the celebration of Les Flanagan’s 90th birthday.

Seems rockhounding contributes to a long life. After a rousing version of “Happy Birthday”, a lovely cake was shared by all. Marge confided that the many years of field trips and other related activities contributed to some of the most memorable times the couple have had.

Faceters Guild Conference Review by PMRC member, Lisa Elser

26-28 was the date of the Columbia-Willamete Faceters Guild conference which was held just out side Portland. Tom and I drove down and from the initial reception on Friday to the last roundtable discussion on Sunday, we were impressed and thrilled with the event. We’d initially signed up to see Bob Long, one of the faceting greats. He and his partner Norm Steele created meetpoint faceting, a mathematical framework that underpin tools like Gemcad. Every gem designer today stands on their shoulders. Spending time with Bob and listening to him speak about his experiences and discoveries was worth the trip alone. Robert Strickland, author of Gemcad, gave several talks, including an advanced session on Saturday night. BothTom and I are feeling much more confident in our use of the program and learned some very, very useful tricks. There were many people there who we’d known only from

Neil Schnee and birthday boy, Les Flanagan. Photo, courtesy, Marlene

email lists as well as some old friends. I bought a Polymetric OMF concave machine and am looking forward to spending some frustrating hours learningthose techniques! Along with Polymetric, John Franke of the Facet Shoppe was there selling laps and rough. I bought some synthetic material from him to prototype new cuts, and I highly recommend him as a dealer. The Guild did an extraordinary job of pulling this all together and we’re both hugely grateful. Corresponding membership is available for people living outside Oregon which entitles them to the monthly newsletter, “Facets”.

Websites to check:www.facetersguild.comwww.polymetricinc.comwww.gemcutter.com

Once that was settled, off we went to find a place to camp. Most places where still closed or just too full because of the May long weekend, but we found a nice camping spot overlooking a beautiful lake. We even scored hot water for the morning showers, a must for some of us! Potluck dinner was fun with lots of food and a chance to meet and chat with members from other clubs. Nice group of people. We went back to our camping site

and thought we were going to have a nice peaceful night’s rest. not the case! I do not think anyone had any sleep what so ever. A group of very loud and inconsider-ate people had a party right next to our tents. Luckily they were thrown out the very next day and we never had any other problems with noise Tom and myself decided to venture uphill, and it was amazing

how easy it was to find the Peridot crystals! It was on almost in every basalt rock we turned. Some very sandy ones, others with bigger crystals, but lots to be found! Not the size you can use on faceting but they are very beautiful just the same with colours ranging from pale yellow to dark emerald green. Later in the evening, there was a Rock Auction back at the Winfield Community Centre. Lots of rocks and some fossils were in display for people to bid on. The big

attraction being a huge amethyst geode. It went for more than $300.00 The next day we went on the fossil, opalized shell and agates field trip. This was on a private claim and the person in charge was very helpful and

The Rendezvous 09 Through the eyes of a first timerphotos and article, Lisete Cirqueira

There were four of us leaving that Friday morning to Winfield in the Okanagan Valley, Lynne Johnston, Tom Schlegel, Christine Laurin and myself. The weather was nice and the hours it took us to get there were soothed by the beautiful

landscape and good company. It was early afternoon when we got to our destination. We were

one of the first to register and pick upthe field trips we wanted to take that weekend. There were four different possibilities; Banded Agate & Opals; Peridot; Fossils, Opalized shell and Agates.

Saturday lineup before departure from Vernon Arts Centre

Tom and Christine taking opal and opalized shellfrom a very large conglomerate.


Club members are invited to display their collections and demonstrate their skills. If you require a Society case please contact Win Robertson;Tel. 250-376-4878 or E-mail [email protected]

Free dry camping is available at the hall for the weekend.

KOMAREVICH ORIGINALS LTD.1510-7th Street S.W, Calgary, AB T2R 1A7Will be the dealer at Rendezvous,If there are any special requests for items we carry please contact:Mike at Phone: 403-244-3244, Fax: 403-244-3424or E mail: [email protected]

Visit the store at: www.komarevichoriginals.com


extremely knowledgeable. It was a really good experience to be out on fossil bed. Its very different from just trying to identify a rock Back at Winfield, there was a mini show with dealers, second hand machinery and a bucket Raffle. A nice catered dinner was served at the end of the long day and we shared our exciting finds. On Monday it was pancake breakfast and saying goodbye to all those new faces and heading home. The long weekend seemed rather short after.

More strategy planning. It involves standing around, leaning on trucks and drinking water

Rendezvous 2010The British Columbia Lapidary Society

May 21 - 24, 2010Elks Hall,640 - Moha Road, Lillooet, BCHosted by the Interior Zone

Help OutDonations for the bucket raffle and the rock auction are needed and greatly appreciated.

Field trips will be posted at registration

Planned activities:Friday afternoon and evening: - Registration and setting up of display cases.Friday pm: 6:30 - ????, Pot Luck Dinner

Saturday AM: - Field trips, Rock Auction at 7:00PM

Sunday AM:- Field trips, Bucket Raffle at 5PM

Sunday 6:30pm - Catered DinnerThe Annual General Meeting of the British Columbia Lapidary Society will be held after the dinnerMonday morning - Pancake breakfast

Lillooet is located along the banks of the Fraser River at the Junction of Highway 99, Highway 12 and Highway 40.

It is conveniently accessible to the Lower Mainland, Whistler, Kamloops, and the Cariboo.Jade is part of the geographical history of the region and can still be found on the shores of the local rivers and in the surrounding mountains.

Directions:

Rendezvous 2010Accomodations

4 PINES MOTELBox 36, 108 - 8th AvenueLillooet,BC V0K 1V0Tel: 250 256-4247,Toll Free: 1-800-753-2576Fax: 250 256-4120Located in the heart of Lillooet, 19 brand new units, suites with jet tubs, units with twin, double, queen or king beds direct dial phones, all rooms air con-ditioned. Kitchenettes with fridge and microwaves, complimentary tea and coffee, smoking and non-smoking units47 units - $55 - $125, additional person - $17.For more information visit www.4pinesmotel.com

GOLDPANNER HOTEL250-256-2355, Fax: 250-256-0228Toll Free 888-256-2354,639 Main St, PO Box 70, Lillooet, VOK 1VOWith queen, doubles, twins; free high-speed wireless internet; secure access, phone system, cable TV, movie channel, air-conditioned, in-room coffee/tea, fridges, full bath, continental breakfast(seasonal); hotel built in 2003; non-smoking facility;Major CC, Cash, DC, Travellers Cheques; Pet Policy: no pets; CP: 48 hrs no refund.22 Units-$63-95; Add'10For more information visit: www.goldpannerhotel.com

MILE "0" MOTEL250-256-7511, Toll Free, 888-76-4530,Fax 250-256-4124E mail: [email protected] Main St, PO Box 219, Lillooet, VOK 1VODowntown; centrally located; quiet, spacious units; view of mountains & Fraser River; air-conditioned; kitchenettes; 2 room suites; honeymoon suite; balconies; jetted tub; 46 cable channels; compli-mentary coffee; ice; smoking and non-smoking rooms available.Major CC, Cash, DC, Travellers Cheques; pets allowed, call for details; CP: 24 hrs notice.36 Units-$50-95; Add'$10For more information visit www.mileomotel.com

HOME & AWAY GUEST HOMES250-256-0009615 Summer St, PO Box 1754, Lillooet, VOK 1VOAt Lillooet Esso, turn right on 7th, left at Summer.Exclusive, modern 3 bedroom, 2 bath homes; large rooms; comfortable living rooms with extra sofa beds; spectacular Eraser River & mountain views from decks, patios; fully equipped kitchens with microwave, dish- washer; laundry; satellite TV; private; secure heated garage; monthly rates; Smoking Policy: outdoors only in designated areas;Cash, Personal Cheque, Travellers Cheques;Pet Policy: pets allowed, call for details; CP: 30 days. If 2 Units-$85-115; Add'l $14 For more information visit www.homeandaway.ca

STURGEON BAY B&BRod and Michelle Graham130 Haylmore PlacePO Box 1130, Lillooet, BC V0K 1V0Phone: (250) 256-7792Studio: (S) $80.00 (D) $90.00Suite: (S) $80.00 (D) $90.00Three people/Two rooms $120.00Four people/Two rooms $150.00Queen size Futon available add'l $10.00

BUMBLE ROOT B&B250-256-0332104 - 9th Ave, Lillooet, VOK 1VOMain St, turn left at Lou's Family Restaurant. Your own private home away from home; fresh baked goods every morning; kitchenette; private entrance; non-smoking facility;Major CC, DC, Travellers Cheques; Pet Policy: pets allowed, call for details; CP: 24 hrs.2 Units-$85-95; Add'l $20For information visit www.bumblerootbandb.com

CAYOOSH CREEK CAMPGROUND250-256-4180, Toll Free 877-748-2628,E mail: [email protected], Hwy 99, PO Box 1548, Lillooet, VOK 1VO(Apr-Oct) East side of Fraser River, below Lillooet on Hwy 99.Spacious riverside setting, pull through RV-sites; hookups; treed & grassed tent sites; deluxe on-site RV rental; firepits; clean washrooms; 'free hot showers; reservations welcome; DC, MC, Travellers Cheques, VI; Pet Policy: pets allowed, Elec, Water & central dump-station Inc42 Sites.Per 2 persons $19-24; Add'l $2.5.For information visit www.cayooshcampground.ca


had numerous items available to the rockhound who offered the most money or had the best luck. Discussions on which field trips to go on evoked images of treasures just waiting for us to find and bring home. Everybody had an opinion on which field trip would be the most rewarding and the easiest to get to.

Going on a field trip is exciting! You never know what is ahead for you, but there will always be the possibility of finding that treasured memento. Even if you do not find that piece of rock, having the adventure of getting to the site and observing the natural environment around you can be breathtaking. Being uncomfortable in a pile of broken basalt columns can pay off. After spending a couple of hours looking for agate and not finding anything worthwhile, Darlene had enough, exhausted and sore, she sat down on a pile of broken basalt columns. To make her surrounding more comfortable, Darlene decided to shift some rocks. The first rock she turned over revealed a ten inch geode made up of quartz crystals and agate. A good find and a good day!

August 2 - 7, 2010 Telephone: 250-677-4392, Toll free: 888-893-1628, [email protected]. Box 66Little Fort, BC V0E 2C0 Known as the Hub of the North Thompson, the small community of Little Fort is located in the North Thompson Valley region of British Columbia, Little Fort is west of the Thompson River on the Yellowhead Highway 5, at the junction with Highway 24, between Barriere and Clearwater.

Summer Camp 2010: OVERLANDING STOPPING PLACE

LOST HORSE MOTEL 137 Hwy 24, PO Box 41,Little Fort, VOE 2CO Junction of Hwys 5 & 24,1 hr north Kamloops. Single, double & queen beds; kitchens; combination baths; satellite TV; phones; wireless internet access; Smoking Policy: non-smoking rooms available; Cash, DC, MC, Travellers Cheques, VI; Pet Policy: pets allowed, call for details; CP: 5 days.250-677-4288, Toll Free 866-567-4677For more information visit: www.littlefort.ca5 Units - $55-75; Add'l 5; LS Rates

OVERLANDER STOPPING PLACE

4 km south of Little Fort,85km north of Kamloops. Grassed & treed sites; pull throughs; full & partial hookups; firepits; laundry; sani-station; rock & gift shop; washrooms, coin showers; toilets; heated pool; horseshoe pit; pay phone; playground; Cash, DC,MC, Travellers Cheques, VI; 40 Sites - per vehicle $17-28

Accommodations: For accommodations information in Clearwater or Barriere Check the BC

Accommodations Guide.

THE RIVERMOUNT MOTEL & CAMPGROUND

4462 Hummingbird Rd Hwy 5 S, PO Box 68, Little Fort, VOE 2CO4 km north of Little Fort on Hwy 5. Sleeping units; Combination baths; satellite TV; RV parking campsites; flush toilets; showers; firepits; firewood; picnic area; sani-station; licenced restaurant; home cooking; Smoking Policy: smoking in designated areas only; Cash, DC, MC, VI; Pet Policy: pets allowed, call for details; CP: 3 days.250-677-4477, Toll Free 866-816-7912,[email protected] Units-$60-75; Add'l $7, 13 Sites - per 2 persons $14-22


Richmond Gem & Mineral ClubHard Work Collecting Rocks!Whether you collect rocks with hand tools or a wallet, it can be hard work. From reports by our members the BC Gem Show was a success. Dealers did a brisk business and bargains were found. During the first hour on my first day back to the workshop, I had the pleasure of viewing rough rock and slabs purchased at the show by

several of our members. Dorreh purchased some very interesting green aventurine and brown jasper breccia. Both took a great polish when made into cabochons. Our

volunteers worked hard to help make the show a success and some were also lucky. Trapper won a micromount of a Rutile crystal (great specimen) and other members also won prizes for volunteering. The Rendezvous experience was also enjoyed by many of our members.

Bringing food to the pot luck dinner enabled Darlene and I to meet with many of our fellow rockhounds that we had not seen for a while. Not all treasures were to be found in the ground. The rock auction and bucket raffle

Ripple Rock Gem & Mineral ClubAbbotsford Gem Show Submitted by G. Burkholder

It was a dark and very early morning that greeted the 14 members in the parking lot of the Tyee Plaza who were going o the Abbotsford show on the chartered bus. Doug’s care in organizing and planning the trip was precise to say the least. We waited as long as we could for late arrivals and departed for Parksville and the next addition to the group. We collected the final contingen at the ferry terminal. Our numbers were now 42 strong rock enthusiasts.The show itself lived up to its billing as one of the best around. The arena was not overly crowded but there were a large number of patrons milling around snapping up deals, finding the treasures hidden among the heaps of offerings and eyeing the items they could wait a bit longer before handing over the cash. Not one among our group came home on the 7pm ferry from Horseshoe Bay without something to talk about. Jewelry, rocks, equipment and ideas were happily passed around. Arrival back at the shopping mall in Campbell River was just a bit after 11 but we all bustled off content with the day. Thanks again to Doug Murray for doing all of the work in making this day such a success!

Upper Campbell Lake Dallasite Sunshine, warm tem-peratures and a bit of a breeze welcomed the dozen rock hounds in the Canadian Tire parking lot for the formation of our convoy to collect rock on Saturday, April 25.Doug’s puppy has grown considerably since we last saw him at Port McNeil last summer! I guess he’s not the only one, eh!The site at the Upper Campbell was clear of snow this year and the water level in the lake not

quite as low but the samples of dallasite, epidote, and garden rocks were readily available. A trip up the mountainside opposite the lake didn’t prove as rewarding. The views, however were terrific! Everyone appreciated the wonderful camp meal that was shared around noon. Doug has a flair for cooking dogs and onions. Another great outing!

Gemboree 2009 ParksvilleThe weather was great, the location was great, and the people were great. I was only able to get to Coombs for the day on Saturday. I pulled into the Coombs Fairgrounds at about 7:45 AM and saw a fewcampers and trailers in the field. I parked on the side and went into a large covered area to register. The coffee was on and the folks from Parksville were busy organiz-ing the different field trips and setting up for the auction. Our group of 8 vehicles left for the Nanaimo River and a day of gold panning. We drove about 15 kilo-meters west of the Island Highway up a gravel road to the site of an old gold mine from the 1930‘s. During the depression miners would walk a trail from Nanaimo to the site and pan about $3.00 worth of gold per day. There were, originally, six or seven small log cabins but only the remains of one of them is still standing. The area was awash with spring wildflow-ers. There were tiger lilies and honeysuckle all around. The sun was sparkling off the river below us and the mosquitoes all seemed to have taken the day off. There were lots of different styles of gold pans in use, from the traditional steel ones to plastic pans with special ribs designed to capture the gold. It was not hard to find gold, but the flakes were really specs and they were difficult to separate from the black sand. If everyone had pooled their gold



AFMS MeetingBillings Montanaby Hilmar KrockeLapidary Club of West Vancouver

Heidi and I decided to go to this years meeting of the American Federation of Mineralogical Societies in Billings, after I had seen the interesting schedule of fieldtrips that were planned for the whole week following. Since we did not see any other BC license plate, we assumed we were the only ones and therefore I feel obliged to write a

we probably did make our $3.00 that day.After lunch and a little more gold panning we headed back towards home but stopped off at Elkhorn Creek for a short hike. The creek bed is all shale and there were shell fossils to be found all along the banks. We spent about 45 minutes there until everyone had a few samples then headed back up the highway to Coombs.The Parksville Club did an excellent job of setting up for the sale. There were tables down one side of the building with lots of slabs for sale and each one individually priced. Along the back wall were the silent auction items and all along the far side the rocks were sorted by variety, ready for auction. The front of the building held all of the bucket auction items. The auction was already in progress when I returned from gold panning so I missed out on the dumorturite that I was hoping to score but there were lots of other things that I couldn‘t do without. There were many enticing aromas coming from a row of slow cookers and crock pots down by the silent auction items. I had to leave before dinner but I am sure that it was good. Thank-you to all the members of the Parksville Rock and Gem Club

report. We noticed license plates from AB, SK, and ON and from just about every state in the US. I had all the Motels for the trip there, as well as for the stays in Montana pre booked. This turned out to be a wise decision, since we know of some people who had to overnight in their car because all the motels were booked out. We left Vancouver on Wednesday, July 29. and with overnights in Grand Forks (in friends house), Eureka and Stanford arrived on Saturday around noon in Billings. Three and a half days made for an easy and relaxed driving schedule. After some lunch and checking in we walked across the street to the Convention Centre where the show was. We got some more information for the upcoming fieldtrips and then set out to see the Pictograph Caves, located a short distance outside of Billings in a Montana State Park.

On Sunday we spend pretty much the whole day at the show and were hard pressed to see every-thing. It was huge. The display cases were of excellent quality. They get critically judged in a variety of categories. Amongst the many dealers one stood out from the rest : GARGOTI from India. Heidi could not resist and buy one of the many specimens with a dark blue fuzzy ball of Cavensite sitting on Stilbite and Heulandite. Very pretty.

The first fieldtrip on Monday went to the famous Bear Canyon agate site. (See article in the July “Rock and Gem “ magazine)130 cars, close to 300 people, portapotties brought on site, water in coolers, grilled Hamburgers and Hot Dogs, and three tables full of all kinds of food. What a production. All organized by the Billings Club. The larger pieces of this black and white, intricately patterned Agate have all been

pretty much collected by the locals, but we still found 7 smaller pieces. Heidi also found a fos-silized coral and we picked up a number of nice Jasper pieces in the vicinity.

Tuesday brought a geological tour of the Prior mountains, led by local Geologist Dr. David Lopez, who provided a lot of insight into the genesis and geological history of the area. It ended with a stop at a hillside where we collected the plentiful Jurassic fossil Gryphaea, a Bivalve, type of oyster, also commonly known as “Devils Toenails / Claws” because of their strongly curved shape.

On Wednesday everybody drove on to Miles City in the morning from where we went on to a large Gravel Island in the Yellowstone river. The collecting there tuned out to be poor because all the rocks where still covered in mud for the lack of any strong precipi-tation previously. That evening we checked into a motel in Glendive.

Thursday morning we went S of Glendive to a fossil locality. Cretaceous Hell Creek formation. This was not very plentiful and most people soon lost interest. However we were on a gravel road and there was plentiful collecting, with large pieces at the margin of the road, which went on in both directions for tenth of kilometre. Jasper and petrified wood were plentiful and Agates were there to be found. What is commonly called “Montana Agate” is a clear Chalcedony typically with black inclusions of manganese oxide either as “moss”, or isolated blobs or arches, or banding.

Friday we went to a fossil site in the Pierre Shale of the Cretaceous period. There were huge concre-tions filled with layers of Brachio-pods etc. Unfortunately the area

with the Ammonites was inac-cessible because of deep muddy roads. However, ever vigilant, we picked some nice selenite crystals right out of the mud.The last fieldtrip on Saturday was supposed to go to a good fossil site north of Hysham. It had to be canceled because of Thunder-storms and mud. We had some inside information of a gravelpit N of Terry. One other couple joined us there in the afternoon and we picked up a lot of chalcedony, jasper, petrified wood and a little of that “Montana Agate”.

On Sunday, on our way back home, we met up with a couple from Bozeman, whom I had contacted via e-mail beforehand, and they brought us to a site on Portal Creek in the Gallatin mountains where they know of a very big jasperized tree trunk. We had the right heavy tools along, so I was able to break off one big piece (16 kg) and a number of smaller pieces with nice colours. The big junk has a hand sized surface of amethystine Quartz crystals on it.

On Monday we made a brief stop at Gem Mountain outside of Phil-lipsburg and sifted a small bucket of material from Rock creek, which yielded about 40 little Sapphires with a combined weight of 20 carats And then it was time to come back home again, with one more overnight in Spokane and a very good Bavarian lunch in Leavenworth.If anybody plans a collecting trip to Montana please do not hesitate to contact us for tips and connec-tions. By the time you read this we will have been to and returned from Brazil. Since I know that a number of other people (6 or 8) from BC will be going on that same mineralogical tour, I trust somebody else will write a report about it.

Vancouver Island Zone ReportApril 30, 2009Linda Strand, Corresponding Secretary, Vancouver Island Zone, 2008 to 2010.

The following is a summary of recent club activities in the Vancouver Island Zone. The information is taken from the Spring Zone Meeting.

Alberni Valley Rock and Gem Club: The Club had a very successful Show with over 1600 people attending on March 7-8th. There were dealers, demonstrations, club and personal showcases, and childrens’ activities.A highlight was the beef dinner on Saturday night where old and new friendships were established. The Hall is already booked for next year on March 13th and 14th. The club is now looking forward to fieldtrips.

Courtenay Gem and Mineral Club: The Club is preparing to co-host its annual Show with the Parks-ville Club. It will be held on May 2-3. There has been one field trip to Oyster River, although snow, ice and cold got in the way of a lot of possible field trips. The Club’s Workshop is moving to a nearby building still on Boyes’ property, and the Club is contemplating the need for a separate ‘Saw Shed’.

Cowichan Valley Rockhounds:The Club’s Christmas pot luck supper was well attended with lots of fun and great cuisine. Activities included a successful Silent Auction and recognition of Long Term members. Since Christmas many members have been extremely active in lapidary, silver smithing, wire wrapping, beading, geology and field trips.

Several members have also formed a faceting group. One Club goal is to have as many members as possible attend and support other Club shows.

Parksville & District Rock and Gem Club: The Club had a delicious pot luck turkey dinner for Christmas and raised some money through a Silent Auction. The Lapidary Shop Manual is available for a donation of $10. The Club is preparing to co-host the show with Courtenay which is a new experience for most of its members. Planning is also underway for the 2009 Gemboree which will be held at the Coombs Fairgrounds in Coombs on June 5 to 7.

Ripple Rock Gem and Mineral Club: The Club has had field trips to the Fraser River Bar, Oyster River and organized a bus load of members to attend the BC Gem Show in April. Planning for the 2010 GMFC Show is going along fine, and the Club is hoping to swap dates for the 2010 Gemboree with the Victoria Society.

Victoria Lapidary and Mineral Society: The Society had its annual Christmas pot luck dinner along with members giving donations to the Food Bank and a gift exchange. The Workshop is available. Plans for the2009 Show were underway (and the Show was successfully finished just before the Spring Zone meeting). Members had a field trip to Island View Beach, and have more interesting programs planned for the spring.



Vernon Lapidary & Mineral Club1959 – 2009Afternoon of February 20th 1959 was clear and cold in Vernon, B.C. with a fresh skiff of snow swirling over the sidewalks and roadways. Soon to be elected Bob King and Harold Cochburn President and Vice-president of the Vernon Lapidary and Mineral club explained the ideas and concepts to 16 eager people. Etta Thorburn (Sec.), Luicelle Loque (Tres.) and Margaret Munk (Historian) joined the first executive of the club. Larry Lougheed and George Menzies from Kelowna’s 1120 club (started 3 years earlier) were in attendance to help organise where they could.

Three weeks later a trip was taken to Kelowna to learn about some equipment and look at the collection belonging to Geo. Menzies. Following that there were expeditions to Penticton and Kamloops clubs for more expertise. The first field trip was to be to Monte Lake and down the Douglas Lake road. These sites proved to be very popular through the years – still yielding good finds of agate nodules, calcite, green moss agate (Douglas Lk.) a blue common opal and some jaspers.

In November of 1959 in Kelowna the zone society meetings were formed with the “purpose of promoting a closer relationship between the parent body and other distant clubs by forming regional groups ie. Vancouver, lower mainland and southern interior.” The Vernon club was well represented. Most of meetings in the early years were held in the homes of the members and the executive.A ‘rock hunt’ was held in Shaw

Springs in May 21-23/1960. Over 300 people from across the province attended including a group from the Vernon club. Pearsons from Tappen found a rare blue agate geode (11inches by 6 inches) which was estimated at $100 per pound.In early May 1961 a 1660 pound agate was found in the area around Winfield by Lew Carswell, Andy Maksymchuck, Dave Nickefort and Doug Holmes of Vernon. They man-handled it on to a truck and weighed it at the truck scales.On the 24 weekend in May, 1961 Vernon hosted its first rendez-vous. 225 people attended some from Calgary and Oregon. Field trips went to Monte Lake, Douglas Lake, Whitemans Creek, Robbins Creek and Pinaus Lake. It was here a 60 pound piece of jasper was taken along with many 20 – 30 pound chunks.Stories started popping up about members getting lost on outings serious enough to have to warn all members at several meetings.A May 1962 trip to the Enderby cliffs yielded lots of agate and crystals lying around to be picked up. They also found common opal and calcite. During this year Vernon sent display cases and specimens to Kamloops and Kelowna shows.By December 15th 1962 there were 55 rockhounders in Vernon attending the Christmas party at the Fish and Game Club. A phonograph, amplifier and records were brough for the dance and $4.75 was made raffling off a bottle of cheer. Also a cover charge of $.25 was used to cover the hall rental of $15.00Charging into 1963 February 4-6 we held our first gem show and sale in the Legion Hall for Winter Carnival. Tours of students (500) were shown through by their teachers. The club made a huge

profit of $396.00Beginning in 1966 our meetings were held in the library of Beairsto School with the annual dues of $4.50 for a family and $3.00 for a single.July 18 and 19 1981 Vernon Club hosted the 4th annual Gem and Mineral Federation of Canada show. It was held at the Rec. Center gym and had over 40 cases, 53 non-competative cases and 13 competative cases covering lapidary handicrafts and collections. There were 13 dealers and as many demonstra-tors plus lots of other activities. The chairman was Gordon Millar assisted by Ann Millar. It was a great success and the GMFC, the B.C. Gem and Mineral society and our club each pocketed $1200. 1984 May we turned 25 years old celebrating the annual society rendezvous in Paddlewheel Park, Vernon attended by 250 people. Etta Thorburn (the first sec. and only active charter member) was given a life membership pin. A comical fashion show put on after dinner by the ladies of the club proved to be a big treat.In 1986 the club started mall sales – one day to start going to 2 days in April and November. We advanced to 3 day sales in September 1992 but went back to 2 days last year when the mall started charging.

Every year from spring to fall members have been very active collecting material from the field trips and transforming it into unique jewellery and other items like book ends, pen stands, gem trees, clocks and more. Others have learned silversmithing, opal cutting and triplet making,wire wrapping cabouchon making faceting, gem tree making and tumbling

The Shop In 1975 Bert & Etta Thorburn worked very hard to get a grant to buy machinery for a work shop. April 1976 we opened a shop in a little shed at Howard House after Bert wired and set it up. That lasted for 3 years and the shop was moved to Stevie Normies garage. 1980 the shop moved again to the Arts Center which is now the Boys and Girls Club near the rec. Center. Again Bert wired the place. The shop, open 2 nights a week, was well attended, and was supervised by our own Arnold Schoepp. In addition he taught members the skills of his craft. July of 2000 it was moved to the Lions Den Basement. Lack of use and the rent forced a move to store in Clara and Henry Rodrique`s shed. April of 2002 it was moved to the Science Center but the rent became an issue and we moved in December of 2007 to our present place at the Arts Center.

The Vernon Lapidary Club is a vibrant active club. We have 113 rockhounders, including 26 pebble pups. We hold 3 mall sales each year – Apr. Sept. And Nov.and along with the Kelowna 1120 Club host the Gem and Mineral show in July 18 & 19 Winfield Memorial Hall. Dealers and demonstrators will be presentIt goes without saying that the club has been and will only be a success and a fun place through the hard work of everyone pitching in to help, each with their talents and time. Thank you one and all in the last 50 years

For recognition of their efforts in the past we would like to honour our life membersRuby Gay, Ted and Gert BasellArnold and Suzie SchoeppClara and Henry Rodrique

Gone East 2009By Terry Bacon

Since Diane Bowman moved to the capital Ottawa we have been trying to get together to rock hound . Well this spring we got out to Winnipeg were my Mom & myself met up with her. It is almost the same distance from Abbotsford to Winnipeg as from Ottawa so it seemed like a good place to start. Leaving B.C. right

after Rendezvous we headed east May 21 2009. The weather was good and so was the traffic. We all arrived in Winnipeg at thesame time May 23 and had the good fortune of my cousin Val having space for us all at her house. She even gave us spare keys so we could come & go as we pleased. Diane & I started calculating what all we could cover in the time we had.

First on the list was a trip to the famous Souris rock pit in Manitoba it’s about a 2 hour drive west and slightly south of Winnipeg just out of Brandon. So on May 24 Sunday off we went in Diane’s car, leaving my mom to visit family. After a nice drive to Souris we stopped at the rock

shop to chat & get our permit $ 10 for the right to collect at the pit. The pit is a municipal gravel pit that is behind the fairgrounds in the community of Souris. It is about a 1/2 mile from the rock shop to the pit and its paved all but about 400 feet which is hard packed gravel. There is no shade there or facilities so go prepared the bathrooms are at the park about 1/4 mile away.The collecting is very easy as

you pick up agates , jaspers and all kinds of petrified woods on the surface. If you happen to be there when the screener is working its even better as it sorts the rocks and the operator usually sets the agates aside for collectors. The area is where the glaciers met and startedto melt and retreat so there are many varied rocks to be found from many geological eras. The unfortunate part is the city is using the pit as a junk storage area for old vehicles so the area is being used up. We were there for a couple hours and had plenty of rock. There was a skim of dirt on most (

as it was early season )so it was mostly guess work on what they were going mostly by the shape you can tell the agates. These are Montana type with golden to clear with dendrites in. The woods are of many kinds that have from soft to opal / agate/jasper mixes. There is a lot of material there and it seems no matter what you pick up it will be something worth keeping. Upon returning home I washed up my collection and have been pleasantly surprised at the colours and variety of stones.

We returned to Winnipeg and planned our next day Gillis Quarries about 1 hour from my cousins place. It is in the community of Garson and has

Diane at the Gillis Pit in Garson.


ones come from would be at low water in the very early spring. This is another area I would love to return to for a longer stay. We stayed at Superior Shores Resort for around $119 a night but it did include a massive heated pool ,huge hot tub that was both inside and outside all overlooking Lake Superior.

All too soon it was time to move on we drove north and crossed back into Canada to Thunder Bay and prepared for our last field trip which was to an amethyst mine recommended by the 2 harbors rock shop . A short drive out of Thunder Bay on paved road we turned at a town ? Pearl we followed a gravel road to the Blue Point Mine. It is a small mine blasted out of hard rock where you can go and collect to your hearts content. The owner of the mine spends Vz his time there and Vz in the United States. We walked to the site and he explained how he was using an expanding product to create a bigger crack in the hard rock to expose more amethyst without explosives. He then left us , we

hammered some of the purple crystals out and wandered around there were some nice points and good colour . Again surface collecting proved good too as they had used a cat to move a lot of rock they had exposed and shifted some nice dark red / purple pieces and points out.

When we had had enough we headed back to the car with our buckets full and he tallied up what we had. He also had nice pieces for sale but we had found what we wanted so did not need to buy any. While we were there others came having followed the signs in. They asked him many questions but not many stayed to collect. Back at the hotel we tallied up and got ready to part. It was a great trip with Diane and we saw a lot of area and many interesting sites including a light house which we toured in Minnesota and we saw animals that are not familiar to us., wood chucks.

On my way back to Winnipeg there was an interesting sign on the side of the highway stating that all the waters flow north to

the Hudson’s Bay area. Back at Winnipeg I loaded all my rocks and my mom and we headed west. We did stop at Regina Beach ( where Bob & Rae Sprong ) dealers at our Gem show come from. Unfortunately they were not home and we stopped at a town called Mortlach at a rock shop. There the owner had some local petrified wood and some local ammonites on display. One of which was about a foot in size and looked like apiece of concrete until broken open to expose the ammonite within. It was very interesting but before I could ask about the area a bus of school kids came in , so I left with the thought of going back to inquire at another time.

Incase you are heading east check into Agate Days at Two Harbors And Moose Lake Agate Days as there are big celebra-tions in the areas that sound like a lot of fun and collecting.They seem to be in June or July and check out Minnesota State Park. There’s a lot going on in the world of rocks everywhere and never enough time. So good luck good rock hounding and take care!


been a quarry for limestone since before WW 2 . Again the road is paved except right at the site. Stop at the office and get the permit and instructions. The stone here in world famous and has been used in many churches, par-liamentary buildings and private residences. It is used for walls and walkways and is very durable.

The Geological Survey of Canada describes it as follows ‘Some folks call it tapestry stone, and they prize, especially, its random fossils; gastropods, brachiopods, Trilobites, corals and snails. As the flesh of these once living creatures decayed, a limey mud filled the casings and hardened to rock. ‘Tyndall Stone from the Late Ordovician 450 million years ago.

The weather that day was drizzly but other than very muddy at the start it dried out nicely and the slight breeze kept the bugs away. Diane and I clambered over the rubble pile which is huge the pieces vary in size from manage-able to bigger than trailers. It consists of left overs from the commercial sales such as ones that got broke in transit or off shaped. You will be amazed at the many patterns and shades of grey that are there. We collected many corrals and took pictures of the pieces too big to move including giant snails.

We did get some nice crystal replaced gastropods; we did not find any trilobites but I do have one from a previous visit. As is usual there were others collecting but they were going big for bbqs and patios our hammers were helpful but a portable saw would have helped, We collected and marveled for most of the day,

returning to Winnipeg in the early evening. This is another site that if you have time you should take in even if you do not collect it is an impressive piece of Canadian history. At their home office on the outskirts of Winnipeg you can see a catalog of homes and buildings where this stone has been used along with getting more information from

the friendly employees there.

We had taken my vehicle for this site so we unloaded at home base I put my rocks in a growing pile in Vals garage. Diane loaded her car and we planned for the next sites. Well the next sites were the elusive Lake Superior Agate. Diane and I took our own vehicles as we planned on parting at Thunder Bay .We headed south and entered the United States at a small crossing on a secondary road into Minnesota. We spent the first night at a nice casino called Seven clans in Thief River Falls where Diane spent her allowance on a spectacular jacket of hand cut designed suede .The room was nice and because it was mad Monday it was only $ 39 including a meal! The next day we headed out enjoying the scenery and noticing the amount of water lying around. Our first real stop was Moose Lake where they have a state park with the Geological interruptive Centre, It has many

Lake Superior Agates on display donated by locals. Although you are not allowed to collect in the state park you can search around the are and in the old municipal yards by the airport. We purchased some very nice books on the Agates and a book on sites to check on lake Superiors shores on the way north. We spent the night there and visited the tourism office the next day.

Moose Lake is a small town and the gentleman a the tourism area told is of a few areas to check. We stayed another night and collected small pieces on the gravel roads I think that if you talked to the farmers when they till the fields you would find much bigger ones. We headed north thru Duluth and stopped at every beach we could

assess, we did find many areas of small agates and jaspers less than Vz inch. The weather was great and the company wonderful. We spent 2 night s at Two Harbours area and visited the rock shop there. They have a nice museum display and of course rocks for sale. The owners were friendly and helpful. I did pull a rock about 3 inches in size out of the lake with my scoop on one of the beaches. The last day in the states we were at Paradise Beach which is huge but it was a drizzly and grey day so the agates did not show up so well .Where the big

The Amethyst Mine

Minesotta

12" Loratone Slab Saw - $425.00

14" Loratone Drop Saw - $475.00

Ron Stevens – 604-437-6862

Assorted rough rocks & slabs, lots' a freebies!

24" Felker (Golden Rimlock) Diamond Blade.

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3/4" arbor, tensioned to run at

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Email - [email protected] Quesnel Canyon Rd

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- $450.00 plus shipping.It has never been used!

Morris C Turner - 250-983-8363

40 | B.C. Rockhounder

Club Shows Fall 2009BCLS Interior Zone"Tailgate Sale" Saturday Sept. 19, 10am - 3pmSouth parking lotSwan Lake NursarylandHwy 97 Vernon, BCRocks, crystals, jewellry, tools & used equipment,Hot dogs, hamburgers, coffee etc."Lotsa' neat stuff"Everything Hobby RelatedContact: Gloria Bordass, 250-493-1027Lorne Morris, 250-675-4461 or [email protected]

Fraser Valley Rock & Gem Club50th Annual Gem Show September 26 & 27, 200910 am to 5 pm Featuring "Crystal Dreams"Help us celebrate our 50th Anniversary"Silent Auction, Lunch Counter, Door Prizes and More!"Old Age Pensioners Hall3015 273 Street, Aldergrove, B.C.Dealers with rocks, crystals, minerals, gem stones, beads, gifts & lapidary supplies.Artists demonstrating silversmithing, gem tree making, chain making, beading and wire knitting.Displays of rocks, minerals, jewelry and gemstones.

Admission by donation

Surrey Rockhound ClubAnnual Gem Show October 17 & 18, 2009Sat. & Sun. 10 am to 5 pmFeaturing"Splendor of Rocks"Sullivan Hall6302 152 StreetSurrey, B.C.Dealers with rocks, crystals, minerals, gem stones, beads, gifts & lapidary supplies.Artists demonstrating silversmithing, gem tree making, chain making, beading and wire knitting.Displays of rocks, minerals, jewelry and gemstones. Hourly door prize, silent auction, lunch counter & more.!Admission by donation

Penticton Lapidary & Geology Club"Mall Sale" October 23 - 25, 2009Cherry Lane Shopping Centre2111 Main StreetPenticton, BC

Vernon Lapidary & Mineral Club"Mall Sale & Display" November 6 & 7, 2009Mall hoursVillage Green Mall27th Street & 48th AvenueVernon, BCContact:Pat & Phylicia O'Brien [email protected]

Submit articles for the next issue by November 1, 2009 to:

Win Robertson,6 – 2401 Ord RoadKamloops, BC V2B 7V8E mail: [email protected]

Share your trips and knowledge by sending an article to the Rockhounder.

"My thanks to all that have submitted articles and club news for publication. They are greatly appreciated and enjoyed by our readers."

contents [email protected] contents president's message 2 bursary thank you letters 3 oldest known...

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