Labradorite

I've heard Labradorite with its shimmering colours described as being like fossilised butterly wings. Not a bad description. The optical effect is caused by the same process. For all its huge size, Canada isn't renowned for its gemstones - they still lie undiscovered beneath a lot of ice and trees. So it was a lucky missionary who in 1770 stumbled across Labradorite on St Paul's Island. A small, bleak uninhabited rock high in the arctic. It is an odd thing about gemstones. The prettiest are often found in the bleakest and unlikely of locations and their discovers the curious wanderer rather than professional geologists.