They are met with in well-defined districts of
California, North Carolina, Georgia, and recently in Wisconsin, but up
to the present time the discoveries have been rare and purely
accidental.
_Sapphire._--Of the corundum gems (sapphire, ruby, and other colored
varieties), no sapphires of fine blue color and no rubies of fine red
color have been found. The only locality which has been at all
prolific is the placer ground between Ruby and Eldorado bars, on the
Missouri River, sixteen miles east of Helena, Montana. Here sapphires
are found in glacial auriferous gravels while sluicing for gold, and
until now have been considered only a by-product. Up to the present
time they have never been systematically mined. In 1889 one company
took the option on four thousand acres of the river banks, and several
smaller companies have since been formed with a view of mining for
these gems alone or in connection with gold. The colors of the gems
obtained, although beautiful and interesting, are not the standard
blue or red shades generally demanded by the public.
At Corundum Hill, Macon County, North Carolina, about one hundred gems
have been found during the last twenty years, some of good blue color
and some of good red color, but none exceeding $100 in value, and none
within the past ten years.
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