Editor's Notebook

By Dirk Schmid

Welcome to a special mineralogical issue of the Canadian Rockhound. This issue begins the magazine's sixth year of publication. Although a month late, I am sure you will be pleased with the fine articles published in this issue.

Some of you may have noticed a reduction in the number of articles presented starting with the Summer/Fall issue last year. Instead of overwhelming readers, I have decided to concentrate on a few feature stories in each issue. This makes it easier to devote an entire issue to a theme or topic. I have also adopted a new layout and format to make the magazine more visually interesting and to improve readability. Your PC computer will most likely have the Verdana True Type font already installed (it comes with Windows and Internet Explorer). But both PC and Macintosh users can easily download this font free of charge from Microsoft's website at http://www.microsoft.com/typography/default.asp if they don't have it.

This mineralogical issue starts with an excellent feature story on diamonds by Dr. Ed Pye of Toronto. The Canadian Rockhound is grateful for his contribution. The article explains the origin of diamonds and also covers basic geological principles, such as plate tectonics and subduction. Beginners will find this very helpful. In additon, Ed provides an update on Canadian diamond exploration.

Charles Gould, Tim Jokela, David Joyce and I present a list of Canada's top ten minerals along with a summary for each mineral. It is surprising to learn that no one has published a top ten list previously. We are interested to hear what collectors think about our top ten choices.

The Canadian Rockhound welcomes Sylvain Roy with his first contribution on the Jeffrey Mine in Québec. Sylvain shares with us his collecting experiences and shows us some of the fine specimens he recently found at the mine.

Marco Macchieraldo presents a feature length article on the minerals of Monte Bianco along the border between Italy and France. Recently new red fluorite specimens have been found and are reported here.

And finally, Ronnie Van Dommelen looks at some of the borate and evaporate minerals from Nova Scotia. New findings are presented here.

The Canadian Rockound thanks all authors for their fine contributions, and I hope you will enjoy this interesting issue.

Dirk Schmid
Editor

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