Ken and I tend to struggle over finding the “green rocks”.

There are many of them listed in many of the areas we have been, but we never really have found many. We come “home” each day with many green rocks to look at, but usually, green is the only characteristic that the rocks we find have in common with those listed.

Chrysocolla, turquoise, Varacite, jade, serpentine,  and Malachite.

We believe that this can be for one of two reasons. One: that there have been none of the rocks were were looking for in the areas we were. and TWO, that we are not good enough at identifying them.  Likely the problem is ONE but we like to believe it is TWO.

We have actually found tiny bits of Chrysocolla, and Turquoise on other rocks, but nothing substantial.  WE DID buy a large chunk of Malachite at quartzite(from Morocco) just so that we could have a sample to help us find more, and also to work on over the summer, to make something pretty.

 

Chrysocolla tends to be soft and crumbly unless it is mixed in with silica as in this rock. 

These next two pictures are of malachite, we never actually found any, but bought a chunk from a Moroccan seller at Quartzite

Well we figure we have finally found a significant green rock, JADE. AND we have also found another gem:The Van Dusen River.

It is just east and south of  Fortuna, and is an old growth redwood forest that is not on the main roads.  Like a river running through an old growth forest that you have all to yourself.

We DID have a bit of a scare.

Tucker decided that he was interested in something on the other side of the river, and just went for it. He went straight into the rapids and they wrapped their arms around him and started pulling him down river.  My heart just sunk. We were both running along large smooth slippery rocks, but Tucker managed to get out of the pull and came up on shore. He then became “Velro Dog” for awhile.  He learned a lot about rapids, rapido   . 🙂

What we learned about Jade is that it has a deep colour, is semi translucent, and does not scratch with a knife. So if you see a rock that seems to have a depth of colour (I believe that the semi translucency gives it this characteristic), and is harder than a knife, then you chip off a piece and hold it up to the sun, if you can see light through it, then you likely have Jade.

Apparently Jade can be any colour from White to black. I guess we figure that we HAD to learn Jade because it is the official stone for British Columbia.  I found out a bit of history about Jade and BC.  According to legend, early Chinese Placer Miners working in BC between 1860, and 1900 recognized the mineral and shipped large quantities back to China, by filling coffins of their deceased compatriots with the jade.  Back in the 1960s when large Jade boulders were a novelty, a 1.5 ton boulder was found near Lillooet, that sold at the New York exhibition for 30,000.  Apparently another 23 tonne Jade boulder was exhibited outside the British Columbia pavilion at the world fair in Osaka Japan in 1970.

Jade tends to often have many shades within the same boulder, dark green, light green. We have found a few pieces of jade, but sadly it seems to come in very large rocks, and we saw many very beautiful large pieces, sadly they were to large to carry.

We are clearly getting closer to Bandon, where we are going to visit with our friends there, perhaps play some music and have a rock show…perhaps we shall call it a rock concert.

Much love to all

Janet