By GEORGE FREDERICK KUNZ. The statistics of this report are divided into two sections: First, the discoveries and finds of precious stones in the United States and the mineral specimens sold for museums and private collections or for bric-a-brac purposes; second, the diamond cutting industry. DISCOVERIES OF PRECIOUS STONES. Up to the present time there has been very little mining for precious or semi-precious stones in the United States, and then only at irregular periods. It has been carried on during the past few years at Paris, Maine; near Los Cerrillos, New Mexico; in Alexander County, North Carolina, from 1881 until 1888; and on the Missouri River near Helena, Montana, since the beginning of 1890. True beryls and garnets have been frequently found as a by-product in the mining of mica, especially in Virginia and North Carolina. Some gems, such as the chlorastrolite, thomsonite, and agates of Lake Superior, are gathered on beaches, where they have fallen from rock which has gradually disintegrated by weathering and wave action. _Diamond._--A very limited number of diamonds have been found in the United States. They are met with in well-defined districts of California, North Carolina, Georgia, and recently in Wisconsin, but up to the present time the discoveries have been rare and purely accidental. _Sapphire._--Of the corundum gems (sapphire, ruby, and other colored varieties), no sapphires of fine blue color and no rubies of fine red color have been found. The only locality which has been at all prolific is the placer ground between Ruby and Eldorado bars, on the Missouri River, sixteen miles east of Helena, Montana. Here sapphires are found in glacial auriferous gravels while sluicing for gold, and until now have been considered only a by-product. Up to the present time they have never been systematically mined. In 1889 one company took the option on four thousand acres of the river banks, and several smaller companies have since been formed with a view of mining for these gems alone or in connection with gold. The colors of the gems obtained, although beautiful and interesting, are not the standard blue or red shades generally demanded by the public. At Corundum Hill, Macon County, North Carolina, about one hundred gems have been found during the last twenty years, some of good blue color and some of good red color, but none exceeding $100 in value, and none within the past ten years.