zircon is chiefty zirconium silicate although most specimens contain traces of many other elements. its chief use is as a gem stone its clearness fire and adamantine Iuster making it a close rial to the diamond.it is difficult to understand why a mineral having all the excellent gem stone properties of zircon should have been so slow in winning its present popular favor.perhaps it is because there there has been some question as to the genuineness of certain colored specimens or it many be because there have been so many unanswered questions about the composition and properties this gem of mystery.the name zircon is generally said to come from the arabic worlds zirk (a jewel) or zarqun (vermillion).others trace it to the persian world zargun (gold colored) (1). in sanskrit it is known as rahuratan signifying the stone of the nodes of the moon.the red varieties are called hyacinth for the youth hyakinthos beloved of apollo.a yellow species is known as jacinth while jargoon includes many colors.the ceylonese call the colorless variety matura diamond.recently the name starlite has become very popular for the blue and green hhades (2).early sanskrit books mention a ring called the nava-ratan set with the nine most precious stones of the time one of which was zircon.this mineral was one of the twelve stones in the breast plate of the hebrew high priest as well as forming one of the twelve foundations of the new jerusalem.it was placed with other jewels in the dar-as-salem the arabian garden of peace.zircon has also played its part in the history of chemistry.in 1789 klaproth analyzed a specimen of zircon from ceylon and reported that it contained seventy per cent.of a new earth which he called zirconderde.from this earth berzelius later obtained the element zirconium.the reported deposits of zircon are of such a wide geographical distribution that it is very likely that new finds may be reported at any time.known to the miners as dutch boort it is found in the kimberly diamond mines of south africa (3).the grease used in the jiggers to separate the diamonds from other minerals also collects the zircon and the two must later be separated by hand-picking methods (4).other occurrences of note are expially france (5) the ilmen and ural mountains in russia (6) mugec new south wales australia (7) canada (8) india (9) upper burma (10) madagascar (11) ceylon (12) , (13) , (14), and siam (15) colorado new york new jersey maine north carolina south carolina and idaho have also reported deposits (2).zircon is said to be the only gem stone of natural occurrence in france (16).for many years ceylon was always listed with the chief producers but st present there is no mining for zircon as such as in ceylon.they are found but only incidentally in mining for other stones (17).venable (7) says that finest mugee new south wales is the source of the finest zircon gems.the canadian reports state that many crystals of enormous size and remarkable beauty have been found there.some of the individual crystals weigh about fifteen pounds and are more than four inches in diameter.in india and burma the excavated mud containing the zircon is dumped is dumped on iron grates to remove the larger rocks present.the material going through the grates is dumped into water-fed trommels.the finest material from here goes into washing pans and a series of jiggs.the final product representing only about one-foueth of one per cent. of the original mud goes