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SAPPHIRE.
65

somewhat inclined to purplish red and was not very bright. This unusually large ruby fetched £8,000, or at least it was knocked down, or bought in for that sum. It should be added that this stone was rather clumsily mounted, with four fine large brilliants, as a brooch. Although Ceylon does not produce many fine or large rubies, a very beautiful specimen was lately found in the island. It weighed 4¼ carats, and was at first thought to be an extraordinarily fine spinel. Its colour is difficult to describe, but perhaps the phrase "deep dark scarlet" indicates its hue.

Sapphires, that is blue sapphires, are not only more abundant than rubies, but they are more frequently found of large size. In Siam and Ceylon occur the chief localities for fine sapphires, but inferior, or we should perhaps say, less important, specimens are met with in many parts of the world. An important locality is in the Zamskar range in Kashmir; several others have been discovered in the United States. One of these is a comparatively new locality, some distance from the original sapphire district in Montana. It now yields many small sapphires of a uniform and fair blue colour. These stones have not the rich velvety cornflower blue which is most esteemed, but they possess the merit of remaining bright and glittering under artificial light. Now and again, however, a specimen from the same locality, and of the same blue colour by day, is found to present a purplish hue at night. In Australia, especially in Queensland and New South Wales, sapphires occur in several localities.

Sapphires, even when of the finest blue, do not increase in value with their size to anything like the same degree as rubies: indeed a sapphire of perfect hue and tone shows to the greatest advantage when of quite moderate dimensions; if very large it may appear almost black, especially at night. Again large sapphires are far more common than large rubies. A fine sapphire of 1 carat is worth considerably less than a perfect diamond of 1 carat; its market value may be put down as about £10. There are fine large sapphires