[Rockhounds] Rockhounding on Taiwan

[Rock Currier]

Doug,

When you get to Taiwan, the first thing you should do is visit their 
National Museum. I think this you may find more interesting than any 
minerals you might find. Secondly, if you are an ordinary young man, I think 
you would find a visit to the section of Taipei that has all the barber 
shops interesting. Thirdly you should visit the local university and ask to 
talk to one of the professors (most professors speak some English) and ask 
him about the mineralogy of the island and to see the reference collection 
in the Geology department. Ask about the possibility of collecting 
crystallized minerals on the island, and though I think they are quite 
limited, he may be able to put you in contact with some local collectors or 
students that can guide you to any collecting spots that may be open. And of 
course when you get back you should write up your experiences and post them 
here.

I once spoke to a guy from Taiwan and he said his family imported a number 
of containers of "rocks" each month to the island that were used for 
construction purposes. I pointed out that this seemed rather ridiculous 
because of how much more it would cost than digging the rock from local 
sources, but he said that is was a government subsidized program because 
"they didn't want to make the island smaller by digging the rocks". I still 
don't know if he was pulling my leg or not. Governments do a lot of crazy 
things. You might ask the geology professor about that.

Dalmatian stone is definitely not quartz (chalcedony onyx). When I first saw 
it I got out my all purpose hardness point, the tip of my pocketknife blade 
and was able to scratch it a little. I don't think it is from Mexico, at 
least I have never seen it offered for sale in El Paso. This sounds like a 
nice simple little mineralogy prospect for Tim to run some tests on it and 
find out what it really is.

Rock