35mm x 24mm
35.5mm x 23mm
It was a wet September of 2016, when I came across this oddity in a well-trod location. Located high up in the beach shingle, it was only because of the rain that I saw it at all, and immediately, I recognised its rarity.
As has been mentioned elsewhere, stalactitic agates at Usan are very unusual, and when encountered, usually exhibit the corresponding vertical formations at the edge of a nodule containing mainly fortification or onyx banding, almost akin to an afterthought.
This then, is the only PURELY stalactitic agate I have seen from the area. The stalactites are very intricate and irregular in form, coming to tapering points and being surrounded by quartz.
Ideally, the meadow-yellow and woodsmoke-grey-blue shades might be pleasingly replaced with the Munchian reds, pumpkin oranges, and golden yellows seen in other agates from the area, but then, therein lies the clincher, dear reader. Somewhere, out there, is an intricate, purely stalactitic and richly COLOURED agate, and I intend to find it.
In any case, those particular colours and formations bring a certain atmosphere to mind, that would not exist if it were executed in brighter hues.