CompuServe Messages

Rod, Yeah, it was in 1987, the specimen was displayed by Zee Haag of Tucson and came from Namibia. As I recall it was doubly terminated and about 8 feet long and 5 feet across. It came out of a pegmatite that produces watermelon tourmaline and had a few broken tourmalines embedded in it. I also recall reading in Rock & Gems several years ago about some large smokies rescued from a pegmatite in Brazil (I say rescued because they would have been broken up for the gem material). The larger ones were something like 12 feet long. They were taken to Europe(?) and are on display. There was a photograph of them with (If I remember correctly) Jim Henson (of Muppet fame) standing beside one of them. These didn't weigh anything like Zee's monster being only a couple feet in diameter, but certainly were a few tons. Quartz crystals in the few "hundred pound" range are common in the Brazil pegmatites. I've seen a couple photographs of couple dealers' walkway "fences" made with crystals 2-4 feet long! Lanny