Page 22 - SparHawk Maine Tourmaline

the mine wall. The line is still here. Jeff said almost all of the pockets he has found are above these splotches of black. The wall face cuts through these black tourmaline crystals, leaving circles of black. Some of these are the size of grapefruits, some the size of oranges and some are smaller cherry clusters of black. Above the black tour- maline are gem pockets, voids hidden somewhere within the rock, containing large smokey quartz, a sandy gravely mix of loose mate- rial and tourmaline crystals. In Jeff’s mine most of the tourmaline is a minty green teal color called SparHawk. He’s also finding some bi-color and watermelon crystals. The gem pockets are hidden within the wall and could begin a few inches to several feet or more beyond the surface. In my simplified non-geologist explanation it sounds easy. It’s not. There’s a lot of mystery, a lot of speculation, and a ton of work drilling and blasting. It can be weeks, months or years be- tween gem finds. Jeff is currently in a particularly rich area of his mine. Things are going well.
I’m sitting on a rock in the sun. I’ve been here about forty five minutes making notes, thinking about why people have a fascination for gems. They are rare. They are beautiful. Gems speak to us about the deeper mysteries of nature. Traveling intact through time for mil- lions of years, born to the light... to be cut and polished and given to honor and celebrate our highest ideals love and affection.
It’s good to have this quiet time. This is the first time I’ve been alone at Jeff’s mine. I can hear the wind whispering through the tops of the pine trees. The mine is surrounded with tall pines. The tops are eighty feet above the bottom of the pit. The wind makes a sound like ocean waves in the distance only the sound is coming from high above. The breeze catches leaves in the shorter trees and brown leaves drift down into the pit. I can hear a plane in the distance. There’s a truck on the mine road. It’s Jeff. He backs in. We talk a bit. Jeff goes down to start the cat. He removes the blasting mats from the wall. Ray, his mine assistant arrives. They consult and then get right to it. Jackhammer, pry bars, then screw drivers prying, sweep- ing out the loose material, slowly working through.
The sun is shining. The high cliff walls cast deep blue shadows in the pit. Jeff was right, it’s cool. It’s a different place than two weeks ago with a crowd in attendance. Jeff and Ray proceed with business like certainty. They gently excavate, pause, examine, toss- ing out scrap and tossing keepers into the bucket. They are finding
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