Page 19 - SparHawk Maine Tourmaline

Museum Day at the mine.
tourmaline. At one point the entire floor of the pocket was scattered with tiny pastel pink and green tourmaline crystals. It was only a moment in mining as she scraped away hundreds approaching perhaps thousands of little granular chunks of opaque pastel-colored pink and green tourmaline. All went into the bucket. A few minutes later, the color thinned and there was more of the ordinary color mix of pocket material. Jeff will see it some winter night as he sorts through one of his white five gallon pails. He will see the flecks of the tourmaline mixed in but he will have missed those few moments of concentrated pastel color. He’s probably seen similar dis- plays of a sweep of color at various times at his mine. It was my first.
The most interesting discovery of the day was a small puddle pocket hidden in plain view on the floor of the left pocket. All day, everyone who had been reaching into the back of the big pocket had been lying on top of this small puddle pocket. Sean though, sensed what might be hid- den within. He plunged his arm into this secret puddle pocket, going two thirds of the way up to his shoulder. He pulled out quite a few fist fulls of fine, gemmy tourmaline. When he finished, his hand, arm and bare legs were bleeding. He seemed pleased though.
I’ve now seen six gem pockets at his mine this season and while there are similarities, each has possessed its own personality. Each pocket seems to have its own unique way of presenting.
Ralph Pride, Cross Jewelers, Portland, Maine
17