gems, jade, pyroxene jade, fei cui, Guatemala, Mesoamerica, Nicaragua, Mexico, Honduras, Costa Rica, archaeogemology

Sinkankas: One of the most valuable papers published in North America on jade and little known because of being embodied in a relatively obscure journal. Thomas Wilson commences with a review of all that was known of jade, its nomenclature, its sources, etc., from the earliest mentions that he could find in the literature, citing such authors as Pliny the Elder, Georgius Agricola, John Mandeville, Ulisse Aldrovandi and others, especially those who wrote of the jade of Mexico and the confusing terminology which was applied to green stones and therefore embracing nephrite, turquoise, and even emerald. The use of jades in Mexico is especially treated, and then, passing on to the jade of the Pacific Northwest & Alaska, we find a true bibliographical rarity indeed when Wilson states “No official report has been published [on Alaskan jade], but the following statement of the expedition, including the discovery of Jade Mountain, has been furnished me by Lieutenant-Commander George M. Stoney: … [p. 157–162].” In his account, Stoney tells of his travels in Alaska, his excursions up the Kobuk River, and his discovery of the deposits and collections of specimens, over a time span of three expeditions in 1881, 1883, and 1885–1886. For another account by Stoney, see elsewhere under his own name. Wilson then passes on to a discussion of nephrite and jadeite, then other places where nephrite occurs in Canada, citing George Mercer Dawson in this regard. From p. 171, Wilson now compares the two jades, their occurrences in Europe, the findings of Auguste Damour and Horace-Bénédict de Saussure, mineralogical composition, with a plate of thin-section photographs, and the great Jade Question or “Migration” as Wilson captions this section. An invaluable work which must be consulted by anyone researching the jades of the Western Hemisphere.