Publisher's Synopsis
The information contained in this publication about the proliferation of precious and semi-precious gemstones available today in the world of jewellery, has been amassed from many and varied sources including the Internet. To make it more complete and interesting, it begins at the beginning which is all of four and a half billion years ago when the entire planet was the nearest thing imaginable to a vision of hell orbiting a perpetually exploding nuclear furnace. Since these pre-history days, things have quietened down a bit to what we see around us now and which is the result of billions of years of evolution, and so it is also in the world of gems; from a collective primordial soup we have today prolific collections of beautiful clear and coloured gemstones that can, and do, defy description and bewilder the senses!
