Tourmaline locality, Haddam, Middlesex County, Connecticut, USAi

Regional Level Types
Tourmaline locality	- not defined -
Haddam	- not defined -
Middlesex County	County
Connecticut	State
USA	Country

Before closing this article I must allude to the magnificent specimens of black tourmaline obtainable here in crystals from the size of a needle to those four inches in diameter and twelve inches long. This variety is found widely distributed throughout the town. The most interesting locality is on the property of the late James C. Walkley, where it has been mined by the late Nathaniel Cook many years ago, and specimens sent all over the country. It occurs here in large veins of white passing into smoky quartz, lying between walls of gneiss. The finest and most brilliant crystals are found in the smoky quartz. The writer has seen specimens taken out of this mine as brilliant as polished pieces of jet, fresh from the lapidary's hand. I know of nothing, that for polish and perfection can approach these specimens, except those from Pierrepont, N. Y. These crystals are, as a rule, of considerable size, often weighing several pounds.

Pockets of feldspar are met within the quartz, which yield imperfect crystals of Orthoclase often penetrated by the tourmaline. At Yale and Harvard universities, and Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, may be seen specimens from this mine.

This place being on the property of writer's grandfather, a great lover of God's handiwork and an old pupil of the late Prof. Chas. U. Shepherd, that he received when a boy of ten his first lesson in mineralogy, and I can say that I have spent more time at that old mine than any other, and have the pleasantest reminiscences of it.