Leisure hours among the gems

by Augustus C. Hamlin

THE EMERALD.

Dutens and several others who have written upon gems and precious stones during the last two centuries, have asserted that the ancients were unacquainted with the true emerald, and that Heliodorus, when speaking nearly two thousand years ago of “gems green as a meadow in the spring,” or Pliny, when describing stone of a “soft green lustre,” referred to the peridot, the plasma, the malachite, or the far rarer gem, the green sapphire. But the antiquary has come to the rescue with the treasures of the despoiled mounds of Tuscany, the exposed ashes of Herculaneum and Pompeii, and now exhibits emeralds which were mounted in gold two thousand years before Columbus dreamed of the New World, or Pizarro and his remorseless band gathered the precious stones by the hundred-weight from the spoils of Peru.

Although these specimens of antique jewelry set with emeralds may be numbered by the score or more in the museums and reliquaries of Europe, but very few engraved emeralds have descended to us from ancient times. This rarity is not due to the hardness of the stone, for the ancient lapidaries cut the difficult and still harder sapphire; therefore we must believe the statement of the early gem-writers that the emerald was exempted from the glyptic art by common consent on account of its beauty and costliness.

Stones possessing a green color have been used for ornamental purposes from the very earliest periods of the social life of man. And as we review the archæological history of the human race, it would seem as though minerals of this hue had been especially selected among all others for ornamental purposes.

For instances of this primitive selection, we will refer to the green stone hatchets found among the ancient tombs of Brittany; the axe heads of jade in New Caledonia; the green serpentine implements of Africa; the articles carved from green zoisite, revered among the Chinese from time immemorial; as well as the green jade and amazon stones, which the Mexicans wrought with wondrous skill into strange and grotesque forms, and which they prized above even their magnificent and matchless emeralds. It is also clearly evident that the emerald was discovered in very ancient times, and that it was early adopted in ornamentation, and was prized as among the most valuable of the gems, if not the highest in estimation, for its color and fancied virtues.

Pliny was undoubtedly familiar with the true emerald, and expressed his satisfaction in the following language:—

“There is no color so pleasing to the eye as that of the emerald. Whoever delights in the verdure of herb and leaf must enjoy infinitely more the contemplation of emeralds; for no verdure can compare to theirs. They are the only stones that charm the eye without wearying it. It loses its lustre neither in sun nor in shade, nor in artificial light. It shines continually with the same soft glow.”

In the time of Alexander, the emblems of authority of the Persians consisted of golden imitations of vines, loaded with clusters of emeralds, carbuncles, and other gems. At the famous marriage feast of Alexander and his eighty companions with their beautiful Persian brides, emeralds appear to have been the favorite gem used, and to have been esteemed above all other ornaments except the beautiful pearls of the Persian Gulf.

In ancient times this gem was not only prized as an ornament, but also as a talisman, and even as a medicine in the powdered state. Its beauty captivated the vain and frivolous, and its supposed virtues endeared it to the rich and the wise. It was supposed to exercise a good effect upon the eyesight; hence it was worn as a seal to be looked at; when worn as an amulet it endowed the wearer with courage, drove away evil spirits, assuaged terror, and prevented attacks of epilepsy.

Pliny states that Paulina, at the Banquet, was literally covered with emeralds and pearls, arranged over her dress in alternate rows.

The famous and fatal ring which Polycrates cast into the sea, as an offering to the gods in return for forty years of prosperity, was set with a beautiful emerald.

The ancient Etruscans carved the emerald at a very remote period, and the fact is proven by the scarabeus in the Townley collection.

The Castellani collection exhibits ear-rings of gold set with pendants of emeralds which were found in the tombs at Bolsena.

In the Devonshire gems there is a large emerald cut into a Gorgon’s head, in high relief,—evidently a gem of great antiquity and of exceeding value at the time of its conversion into a work of art.

Within the sarcophagus of Maria Honorii fifty rings set with different stones were found, and among them an emerald set in gold and engraved with a head supposed to be that of Honorius himself. It was probably fashioned for a royal signet and buried with the remains of its owner.

The famous mirror or lens, in or through which the cruel and near-sighted Nero was wont to view the bloody combats in the arena at Rome, is supposed to have been cut from an emerald; but it was probably a lens cut from green glass.

It appears, however, from the researches of the antiquaries, that the gem was very rare until the Imperial epoch, when they were introduced from Asia and other countries in accordance with the luxury and extravagance of the age. Castellani’s collection displays some fine examples of the jewelry of this period set with emeralds. Among them there is a beautiful necklace formed of sixteen natural crystals of emerald fastened in gold; and also another composed of ten natural crystals of emerald set in double chains of gold. Among the engraved gems may be seen an emerald intaglio, representing a Nereid on a sea bull, and two other intaglios of beryl, with pictures of Mars, and a portrait of Julia Paula.

From the earliest times of history monarchs and potentates of all ranks and races, from Solomon to Montezuma, were wont to wear signet rings, which were sometimes engraved, and were then often used to impart authority either by the exhibition of the ring itself, or its impression upon papyrus, parchment, or wax. The most celebrated ring of this description we have any authentic knowledge of, was that formed of a large emerald set in gold and worn by Alexander the Great, whose portrait was engraved upon the stone. The hero, when dying, bestowed it upon his favorite general, Perdiccas, and thereby invested him with the authority of succession. History refuses to make known the fate of this splendid gem. It is probable that Ptolemy Soter obtained possession of it when Perdiccas was slain in Egypt, and that eventually Augustus Cæsar may have worn it for his first imperial seal, which was an emerald engraved with the head of Alexander.

After the death of Pompey in Egypt, his seal ring, which represented a lion holding a sword in his paw, was taken to Rome and presented to Cæsar, who burst into tears on receiving the signet of his former associate and unfortunate rival.

The practice of interring with the dead some of the jewels worn in life, has been practised in recent times. When Cardinal Borromeo was buried at Milan two hundred years ago or more, a large gold cross, containing seven large and fine emeralds surrounded with diamonds, was placed in his tomb. When Lord Palmerston was buried at Westminster Abbey, the officiating clergyman threw into the grave several diamond and gold rings as a peace offering. In ancient times the custom was of frequent occurrence, and to this habit we owe the preservation of many beautiful gems and jewels, which have in this manner escaped the pillage and fury of thieves and iconoclasts.

The mineral has borne the name of emerald since the middle of the seventeenth century, at which time it was adopted by the mineralogist, Wallerius. But whence it is derived, and on what particular grounds, we are not informed. In Asia, in ancient times, it was described under the Sanskrit name, “marakat,” which is connected with “esmark,” signifying a sea monster, or “makara,” meaning the sea. As it passed westward, among the Persians it became “zabargat,” and still farther on its journey it was changed by the Greeks and Latins into “smaragdus.” The derivation of its ancient terms is also exemplified by the use or purposes in which the gem and its varieties were used. It was therefore frequently chosen by the antique gem cutters and engravers, as the proper material for the representation of all maritime subjects or any allusions to the sea gods.

The emerald is now one of the rarest of gems; and its scarcity gives rise to the inquiry as to what has become of the abundant shower of emeralds which fairly rained upon Spain during the early days of the conquest of Mexico and Peru, bringing down the value of fine stones to a trifling price. As with all commercial articles, there is a waste and loss to be accounted for during the wear of three centuries; but this alone will not explain their present rarity in civilized countries. Even in the times of Charles II., when the destitution of the country was extreme, the Dukes of Infantado and Albuquerque had millions in diamonds, rubies, and precious stones, yet hardly possessed a single sou. So impoverished was the land, and so slender were the purses of all, that the Duke of Albuquerque dined on an egg and a pigeon, yet it required six weeks to make an inventory of his plate. At this period, when the nobles gave fêtes the lamps were often decorated with emeralds and the ceilings garlanded with precious stones. The women fairly blazed with sparkling gems of fabulous value, while the country was starving. Most, if not all, of this missing treasure was transferred to Asia, and with the silver current which flowed steadily from the Spanish coffers into India went many of the emeralds also; for in those regions this gem is regarded as a foreign stone, and the natives, investing it with the possession of certain talismanic properties, prize it above all earthly treasures.

When the Spaniards commenced their march toward the capital of Mexico, they were astonished at the magnificence of the costumes of the chiefs who came to meet them as envoys or join them as allies; and among the splendid gems which adorned their persons they recognized emeralds and turquoises of such rare perfection and beauty that their cupidity was excited to the highest degree. During the after years of conquest and occupation the avaricious spoilers sought in vain for the parent ledge where these precious stones were found. Recent times have, however, revealed the home of the Mexican turquoise, which has proved to be in the northern part of Mexico, as the Totonacs informed the inquiring Spaniards. The first of these mines, which is of great antiquity, is situated in the Cerrillos Mountains, eighteen miles from Santa Fé. The deposit occurs in soft trachyte, and an immense cavity of several hundred feet in extent has been excavated by the Indians while searching for this gem in past times. Probably some of the fine turquoises worn by the Aztec nobles at the time of the Spanish Conquest came from this mine. Another mine is located in the Sierra Blanca Mountains in New Mexico, but the Navajos will not allow strangers to visit it. Stones of transcendent beauty have been taken from it, and handed down in the tribe from generation to generation as heirlooms. Nothing tempts the cupidity of the Indians to dispose of these gems, and gratitude alone causes them to part with any of these treasures, which, like the mountaineers of Thibet, they regard with mystical reverence. The Navajos wear them as ear-drops, by boring them and attaching them to the ear by means of a deer sinew. Lesser stones are pierced, then strung on sinews, and worn as necklaces. Even the nobler Ute Indians, when stripping the ornaments of turquoise from the ears of the conquered Navajos, value them as sacred treasures, and refuse to part with them even for gold or silver.

All the Spanish accounts of the invasion of Mexico agree in the great abundance of emeralds, both in the adornment of the chiefs and nobles and also in the decoration of the gods, the thrones, and the paraphernalia. The Mexican historian Ixtlilxochitl says the throne of gold in the palace of Tezcuco was inlaid with turquoises and other precious stones; that a human skull in front of it was crowned with an immense emerald of a pyramidal form.

The great standard of the republic of Tlascala was richly ornamented with emeralds and silver-work. The fantastic helmets of the chiefs glittered with gold and precious stones, and their plumes were set with emeralds. The mantle of Montezuma was held together by a clasp of the green chalchivitl (jade), and the same precious gem, with emeralds of uncommon size, ornamented other parts of his dress.

The Mexicans carved the obdurate jade and emerald with wonderful skill, using, like the Peruvians, nothing but silicious powder and copper instruments alloyed with tin. They also worked with exquisite taste in gold and silver, and they represented Nature so faithfully and so beautifully that the great naturalist Hernandez took many of these objects thus portrayed for his models when describing the natural history of the country.

When Cortez returned home he displayed five emeralds of extraordinary size and beauty, and presented them to his bride, the niece of the Duke de Bejar. On his famous expedition along the Pacific coast and up the Gulf of California he was reduced to such want as to be obliged to pawn these jewels for a time. One of them was as precious as Shylock’s turquoise, and Gomara states that some Genoese merchants who examined it in Seville offered forty thousand golden ducats for it. One of the emeralds was in the form of a rose; the second in that of a horn; the third like a fish with eyes of gold; the fourth was like a little bell, with a fine pearl for a tongue, and it bore on its rim the following inscription in Spanish: “Blessed is he who created thee!” The fifth, which was the most valuable of all, was in the form of a small cup with a foot of gold, and with four little chains of the same metal attached to a large pearl as a button: the edge of the cup was of gold, on which was engraved in Latin words, “Inter natos mulierum non surrexit major.” These splendid gems are now buried deep in the sand on the coast of Barbary, where they were lost in 1529, when Cortez was shipwrecked with the Admiral of Castile whilst on their way to assist Charles V. at the siege of Algiers.

Mariana, in his history of Spain, declares that Cortez had, besides the five great historical emeralds, also two emerald vases which were valued at 300,000 ducats. Whether these remarkable treasures were swallowed up by the sea with the other five when the conqueror of Mexico was shipwrecked, history does not relate.

Among the presents sent to Charles V. of Spain by the first Spanish commissioners, Puerto Carreso and Montijo, in 1519, and also by Montezuma through his governor Teuthlili, were the following articles, according to the description given by Peter Martyr, the learned Italian, who enjoyed the friendship of Columbus and the confidence of the Spanish Court. The Chronicles of Gomara also contain the same list: a gold necklace composed of seven pieces with 183 small emeralds set in it, and 232 gems similar to small rubies, from which hung 27 little bells of gold and several fine pearls; another necklace composed of four pieces of gold with 102 red gems like small rubies, 172 emeralds, and 10 fine pearls, with 26 little bells of gold attached.

The historians, Gomara and Martyr, mention among the prizes which fell into the hands of Cortez, an immense emerald of a pyramidal form, whose base was as large as the palm of the hand; and which may have been the identical stone which crowned the skull which stood before the throne in the palace of Tezcuco. At all events, an emerald of this description Cortez sent as a present to the Emperor of Spain, together with his letters of explanation, after the fall of the city of Mexico. The letters and the various presents were intrusted to the care of two of his confidential officers, Quinones and Avila. Arriving at the Azores, Quinones lost his life in a brawl, and jeopardized the mission; but Avila escaped and put to sea, to be captured shortly after by a French privateer; and the rich spoils of the Aztecs were presented to the King of France, instead of the Emperor of Spain. Francis I. gazed with delight upon the splendors of the gem, and with a feeling of envy exclaimed that he “would like to see the clause in Adam’s testament, which entitled his brothers of Castile and Portugal to divide the New World between them.” What has become of this historic stone?

The quantity of emeralds obtained by the Spaniards in their pillage of Mexico was large; but it was trifling when compared with that collected by Pizarro and his remorseless followers in the sack of Peru. Many large and magnificent stones were then obtained by the Spaniards; but the transcendent gem of all, called by the Peruvians the Great Mother, and nearly as large as an ostrich egg, was concealed by the natives, and all the efforts of Pizarro and his successors to discover it proved unavailing.

Previous to the plunder of America by Cortez and his followers, emeralds were not numerous in Europe; but early in the sixteenth century they began to appear in Spain, and were soon afterwards distributed among the powerful and wealthy throughout Europe. England seems to have had at one time a large share of them, and perhaps many of them were taken by her freebooters from the richly laden Spanish galleons. In the days of Queen Elizabeth emeralds were exhibited in profusion, if we can give credence to the chronicles and inventories of that period.

The parure of emeralds which the Queen of Navarre bequeathed in 1572, to her daughter Catherine, must have been of wonderful beauty and perfection.

What is the stone lately given to Mustapha, the ex-premier of Tunis, by the Bey, and described as the famous emerald once belonging to the Spanish Crown? Was it one recovered from the shipwreck of Cortez, or was it one of those given away by the Spanish rulers in the early days of the conquest of Peru, when they imagined the emerald mines were as broad and exhaustless as the silver beds of Potosi?

The finest emerald in Europe is said to belong to the Emperor of Russia. It weighs but thirty karats; but it is of the most perfect transparency, and of the most beautiful color. There are many other fine emeralds among the imperial jewels of the Czar, some of which are of great size and rare beauty. The ancient crown of Vladimir glitters with four great stones of unusual brilliancy. The grand state sceptre is surmounted by another emerald of great size. The sceptre of Poland, which is now treasured in the Kremlin, has a long green stone, fractured in the middle. It is not described, and may be one of the Siberian tourmalines, some of which closely approach the emerald in hue. The imperial orb of Russia, which is said to be of Byzantine workmanship of the tenth century, has fifty emeralds. This fact alone would seem to prove that emeralds were known in Europe or Asia Minor long before the discovery of America; but, on the other hand, the ancient crown which was taken when Kazan was subjugated in 1553, is destitute of emeralds. And hence we are inclined to believe the imperial orb to be of modern workmanship, especially as some of the ancient state chairs do not exhibit emeralds among their decoration of gems and precious stones.

The immense uncut Peruvian emerald, given by Rudolph II. to the Elector of Saxony, is still preserved in the Green Vaults at Dresden.

Queen Elizabeth of England sent to Henry IV., the champion of the Reformed faith, a beautiful emerald, which she herself had worn. She gave it as a token of esteem, and reminded the gay monarch that the gem possessed the virtue of not breaking so long as faith remains entire and firm.

It has been stated that the Emperor Charlemagne regarded the gift from the Empress Irene as the dearest of all his talismans. This treasure consisted of a piece of the true cross, enclosed in a large emerald, which was attached to a strong chain of golden links. When his sepulchre was rifled of the treasures deposited with the deceased monarch, this relic was removed with the rest of the jewels; and in 1811 was presented to Napoleon by the Burghers of the city of Aix-la-Chapelle. Bonaparte one day playfully threw it over the neck of Queen Hortense, declaring that he had worn it on his breast in the bloody battles of Austerlitz and Wagram, as Charlemagne had worn it on the field of battle in the Middle Ages. Hortense wore it until the day of her death.

The emeralds of the French Crown at the time the famous inventory was taken in 1781, do not appear to have been of very great purity. Several of them exhibited fine color, but had many faults. Five of the best were valued at that time at fifty thousand francs, or ten thousand dollars, each.

In the famous Hungarian crown, the large sapphire is surrounded with four green stones of oblong form, whose species are unknown. It is also a mystery how they came there, as they are not mentioned in the inventory made of the jewel when Queen Elizabeth of Hungary pledged it to the Emperor Frederick IV.

The Sultan of Turkey is known to possess some exquisite emeralds; and Rambusson, a French writer on gems, declares that they are the finest in the world. One of them is said to weigh one hundred and twenty-five ounces, and is probably another lump of antique glass. Another of three hundred karats weight, and of less doubtful character, is a gem of great purity and perfection of color. It adorns the handle of a poniard.

In the museum at Florence there is a small vase carved in emerald, and also another ornament of similar form, fashioned from a fine beryl. The mineralogical collection at Munich boasts of some immense emeralds which are supposed to have been obtained from Spain, and part of her Peruvian booty. There are also some splendid specimens of uncut emeralds in the cabinet of minerals at Vienna. The Saxon and the Papal crowns contain very beautiful emeralds.

Probably the most beautiful specimen of the natural emerald in the world is that presented to the renowned shrine of Loretto in Italy, by Don Pierre Daragon, when Spanish ambassador at Rome. He was formerly viceroy in Peru and obtained the treasure at that time. The specimen is a mass of white limestone, crowned with great crystals of emeralds more than an inch in diameter and of exquisite color and lustre.

The name of Emerald Isle is generally supposed to have been derived from the ever green appearance of its shores but an antiquary asserts that it arose from the ring which was set with “Optimo Smaragdo,” and which Pope Adrian sent to King Henry II. as the instrument of his investiture with the dominion of Ireland.

There is a very fine and large crystal of emerald in the museum at Leiden, but its history is unknown.

Dhuleep Singh of India possesses a flattened crystal of three inches in length by two in width, and half an inch in depth, which is regarded as of great value in India. It is said to be of very fine color and with but few imperfections.

The Duke of Devonshire’s crystal in its natural state is reckoned as one of the finest, if not the finest single specimen in the world. It is from Muzo in New Granada, and more than two inches in length. Its form is that of a hexagonal crystal, and its weight is 8 oz. 18 dwts. The color of the stone is beautiful, but several flaws impair the value as a gem.

During the visit of the Prince of Wales to India, many fine emeralds were exhibited to the royal party by the Hindoo nobility. At the grand reception given them at Madras, the Prince of Virianagram wore a bracelet composed of three splendid emeralds of very great size. At Kandy, in Ceylon, the Buddhist priests brought forth from their sanctuary for the inspection of the Prince, an immense emerald four inches long by two inches in depth.

A ring cut out of a single emerald, 1¹⁄₄ inches in diameter, with the name of the Emperor Jehangir engraved upon it, was presented to the East India Company.

One of the most costly and difficult works in engraving upon the emerald in modern times, was that executed by Carlo Costanzi during the last century. Upon a table of emerald two inches in diameter, the head of Pope Benedict and those of St. Peter and St. Paul were engraved. Two years and a half were required by the lapidary for the execution of his task. The engraved gem may now be seen in the treasury of St. Petronio at Bologna.

Some very fine emeralds are said to be preserved in the royal collection at Madrid, one quite as large as the Devonshire emerald and without many flaws.

The Spanish freebooters, returning home from their American fights laden with gems, did not forget the shrines of Spain in their peace offerings. Marshal Lannes, in sacking the church of our Lady of the Pillar, which was one of the richest in Spain, obtained an immense booty. Madame Junot declares in her memoirs that it was not far below five millions of francs in value.

Harsh stories are also told of the acts of vandalism of Marshal Junot while he was military governor of Spain. It is related that when he visited the Cathedral of Toledo, the church dignitaries freely exhibited to him the magnificent jewels and treasures which belonged to the church and had been accumulating for many ages. The crown of the Virgin, which was beautifully constructed of gold and adorned with exquisite gems, was placed in his hands for close examination. The summit of this admirable and holy piece of human art was surmounted by a large emerald of almost transcendent beauty. The French freebooter examined the beautiful jewel for a few moments, and then coolly twisted off the emerald from its setting and placed it in his pocket, exclaiming, with a Parisian grimace, “Ceci doit être à moi.”

Finely formed crystals of emerald, when not too large, were in early times mounted in gold and in jewelry without receiving any artificial polish from the lapidary. Examples are often found in the tombs of antiquity. The Princess Bariatinsky has a valuable necklace of ancient emeralds fashioned in this manner.

The Orientals, taking advantage of the facility with which the prisms are broken at right angles to the axis, frequently used slices of the crystals, sometimes artificially polished, but often with the natural planes of cleavage preserved. This practice was quite common prior to the fifteenth century. They also adopted the unfortunate custom of engraving them with condensed quotations from the Koran, and often drilled holes through the centre of the stones so as to string them as necklaces or as ear ornaments.

One of the finest gems that adorned the gorgeous harness of Runjeet Singh was a beautiful emerald maltreated in this manner. Major Pearse found in a Punjaub tope a reliquary formed from an emerald three inches long and two inches thick, with the ends rounded off. It was originally a gem of fine color, but had been bored half through its axis to contain two finger joints of some revered Buddhist saint or petted monkey.

The emerald has been a subject of controversy among the chemists and mineralogists, and its character, especially the cause of its beautiful color, is not clearly defined even at the present day. But that distinguished chemist, Professor Lewy of Paris, seems to offer, thus far, the most correct and plausible theory. More than ten years ago he boldly asserted that the hue is not due to the oxide of chromium, and with this opinion he confronted such eminent men as Vauquelin, Klaproth, and others of high rank in the scientific world. Not content with his researches in his laboratory in Paris, he resolutely crossed the ocean and sought the emerald in its parent ledges in the lofty table-lands of New Granada. Here he obtained new information of a geological character which goes far to strengthen his position. The experiments of M. Lewy indicate, if they do not prove, that the coloring matter of the emerald is organic, and readily destroyed by heat, which would not be the case if it was due to the oxide of chromium. All my own fire-tests with the Granada emerald corroborate the views of M. Lewy, for in every instance the gem lost its hue when submitted to a red heat.

Nevertheless, the recent researches of Wöhler and Rose give negative results. These experienced chemists kept an emerald at the temperature of melted copper for an hour, and found that, although the stone had become opaque, the color was not affected. They therefore considered the oxide of chromium to be the coloring agent, without, however, denying the presence of organic matter. The amount of the oxide of chromium found by many chemists varies from one to two per cent, while Lewy and others found it in a quantity so small as to be inappreciable, and too minute to be weighed.

Before the ordinary blowpipe the emerald passes rapidly into a whitish vesicular glass, and with borax it forms a fine green glass, while its sub-species, the beryl, changes into a colorless bead; with salt of phosphorus it slowly dissolves, leaving a silicious skeleton.

M. Lewy visited the mines at Muzo in Granada, and from the results of his analyses, together with the fact of finding emeralds in conjunction with the presence of fossil shells in the limestone in which they occur, he arrived at the conclusion that they have been formed in the wet way,—deposited from a chemical solution. He also found that when extracted they are so soft and fragile that the largest and finest fragments can be reduced to powder by merely rubbing them between the fingers, and the crystals often crack and fall to pieces after being removed from the mine, apparently from loss of water. Consequently, when the emeralds are first extracted they are laid aside carefully for a few days until the water is evaporated.

This statement relative to the softness of the gem and its subsequent hardening has been met with a shout of derision from some of the gem-seekers,—none louder than that of Barbot, the retired jeweller. Barbot seems to forget that the rock of which his own house in Paris is constructed undergoes the same change after being removed from the deep quarries in the catacombs under the city.

This phenomenon is observed with many rocks. Flints acquire additional toughness by the evaporation of water contained in them. The yellow gneiss of Ceylon is soft when quarried, but hardens on exposure to the atmosphere. The Egyptian verde antique marble, which was named after Augustus and Tiberias, was easily quarried with steel implements, but quickly hardened on exposure to the external air. The mosaic plates of this mineral which are inlaid in the decorative work of the Tuscan Gothic buildings are yet quite hard. The steatite of Saint Anthony’s Falls grows harder on exposure, and other minerals, when quarried from considerable depths, become firmer on exposure to the action of the air. Observations of this kind led Kuhlman to investigate the cause; and he believes that the hardening of rocks is not owing solely to the evaporation of quarry-water, but that it depends upon the tendency which all earthy matters possess to undergo a spontaneous crystallization by slow desiccation, which commences the moment the rock is exposed to the air.

The coloring matter of the emerald seems to be derived from the decomposition of the remains of animals who have lived in a bygone age, and whose remains are now found fossilized in the rock which forms the matrix of the gem. This rock in Granada is a black limestone, with white veins containing ammonites. Specimens of these rocks, exhibiting fragments of emeralds in situ and also ammonites, are to be seen in the mineralogical gallery of the Jardin des Plantes in Paris. Lewy believes that the beautiful tint of these gems is produced by an organic substance, which he considers to be a carburet of hydrogen, similar to that called chlorophyll, which constitutes the coloring matter of the leaves of plants; and he has shown that the emeralds of the darkest hue, which contain the greatest amount of organic matter, lose their color completely at a low red heat, and become opaque and white; while minerals and pastes which are well known to be colored by chromium, like the green garnets (the lime-chrome garnets) of Siberia, are unchanged in hue by the action of heat.

At the present time the composition of the emerald is supposed to be a silicate of alumina and glucina, with traces of organic matter and also other earths and oxides; but silica, alumina, and glucina are the principal component parts. It resembles quartz in some of its physical properties, having a specific gravity of 2.6 to 2.7, and a refractive energy of 1.58, but its degree of hardness is slightly greater, ranging from 7.5 to 8.0, while that of quartz is but 7.0.

The Peruvians maintain that the emerald ripens and deepens in color after having been mined and exposed to the air and light. Whether this assertion has been corroborated or not we cannot yet say; but it is a well-substantiated fact that some minerals do gain in color and hardness on exposure, and equally well proved that many others lose their tints very perceptibly. Strange to say, the cystine calculi undergo a similar change of color, and assume a fine greenish-blue tint when exposed to the light, changing from a fawn color. The specimens in Guy’s Museum described by Dr. Marcet in 1817 were of a pale brown, but according to the report of Golding Bird they now resemble the green sulphate of iron. Dr. Peter observed the same mysterious change of color in the two cystine calculi preserved in the museum of Transylvania University, and noted the fact that the change takes place on the side exposed to the light.

But one locality thus far has been discovered in the United States or even in North America, and this occurs in North Carolina. For several years previous to the year 1880, Mr. J. A. Stephenson, a collector of minerals, had obtained in Alexander County a number of beryls and crystals of transparent minerals which had the shape of beryl with a tint of the emerald hue, also other crystals of acicular form which exhibited the true color of the finest Granada specimens of emeralds.

Some of these minerals were shown in 1880 to William E. Hidden, a young naturalist then engaged in searching the mineral belts of North and South Carolina and Georgia for rare minerals. The beauty of these specimens led the young enthusiast to make a thorough search for the parent ledge; and, after a few weeks of earnest labor in cutting deep ditches in the soil near the spot where a number of crystals had been found, he was rewarded with the discovery of the original deposit in a rock of gneiss. In this rock, in which felspar preponderates, he found implanted in open pockets and lenticular fissures crystals of emeralds, quartz, rutile, monazite, beryl, and also many crystals of long and slender shapes which appeared to be diopside, but which exhibited colors of white, yellow, and green of the most beautiful emerald hues. The mineral which appeared to be diopside was submitted to the examination of the distinguished chemist, J. Lawrence Smith, who soon pronounced it to be a new form of spodumene, and named it Hiddenite after the young explorer. Since then the explorations have been continued, and have yielded many very beautiful specimens of both the emerald and the hiddenite. At the depth of thirty-three feet below the surface of the rock several pockets were discovered which yielded some beautiful emeralds and hiddenites. They occurred at the bottom of the pockets, just as the finest crystals of tourmaline are found in the cavities of the granite ledges at Mount Mica in Maine. Twelve of these pockets were found within an area of forty feet square, extending to thirty feet in depth. The largest crystal of emerald found was more than three inches in length and three quarters of an inch in breadth, but its color, although of the true emerald hue, is, however, rather faint. Some of the smaller crystals are of much deeper tint, and resemble the pure specimens from Granada. But the most interesting treasures of the mineral kingdom revealed by this exploration were the crystals which analysis proved to be composed of a silicate of alumina and lithia, otherwise known as spodumene. Some of these crystals were white or light yellow, others were of a rich yellow hue shading into brown, while others exhibited the purest prismatic green of various depths of hue. In some of the green crystals the color has been uniform, while in others it is more intense at one end of their extremities.

Quite a number of the crystals and their fragments have been cut and polished into gems which rival, by their lustre and beauty of color, the best of the South American emeralds. On account of their extreme rarity, as well as their beauty, they have been sought for by amateurs, and have commanded high prices. As the field of deposit thus far known is quite limited, we fear that the yield of this charming mineral will not meet even the demands of science.

Professor Cleaveland, who was one of the best authorities of his day, maintained more than half a century ago that emeralds which exhibited a lively and beautiful green hue were found in blasting a canal through a ledge of graphic granite in the town of Topsham in Maine. Several of the crystals presented so pure, uniform, and rich a green, that he ventured to pronounce them precious emeralds. But to-day we are unable to verify the assertion, or point to a single specimen similar in hue to the emerald from the above-mentioned locality.

The nearest approach to the emerald in color, with the exception of the incomparable green tourmalines from Maine, and the emeralds and hiddenites of North Carolina, are the beryls of North and South Royalston, in the State of Massachusetts. These beautiful stones exhibit the physical characteristics of emeralds, with the exception of the color, in which they differ very perceptibly. But to appreciate fully the difference in hue we must compare the two gems. Then the lively green of the beryl fades away before the overpowering hue of the emerald, whose rich prismatic green may be taken as the purest type of that color known to the chemist or the painter.

Several years ago we visited the localities in Massachusetts which were famous in the days of Hitchcock and Webster. We found that the beryls occurred in a very coarse granite, where the quartz appeared in masses and the felspar in huge crystals. These also occur in finer granite, and exhibit no indications of veins or connection with each other. They are few in number, and are soon exhausted by blasting, being generally very superficial. After removing several tons of the rock at the locality at North Royalston, where the beryls appear on the summit of the loftiest hill, our labors were at length rewarded with two beautiful crystals. One of them was a fine prism an inch in diameter, of perfect transparency and of a deep sea-green color, which, however, is far from being similar to the transcendent hue of the Granada emeralds, which exhibit an excess of neither blue nor yellow. The other was yellowish-green, resembling the chrysoberyls of Brazil.

Other but imperfect crystals were brought to light, some fragments of which exhibited the deepest golden tints of the topaz, and others the tints of the sherry-wine colored topazes of Siberia. Magnificent crystals have been found in these localities in times long past, and from the fragments and sections of crystals found in the débris of early explorations, we observed the wide range of color, and the deep longitudinal striæ which characterize the renowned beryls from the Altai Mountains, in Siberia. Lively sea and grass green, light and deep yellow, also blue crystals of various shades, have been found here.

At the quarries on Rollestone Mountain in Fitchburg, beryls of a rich golden color have been blasted out. Some of these approach the chrysoberyl and topaz in hardness and hue. Others so closely resemble the yellow diamond that they may readily be taken for that superior gem. The refractive power of these yellow stones is remarkable; and the goniometer will probably reveal a higher index than is accorded to all the varieties of beryl by the learned Abbé Haüy.

Beautiful transparent beryls have been found among the granite hills of Oxford County in Maine; and the late Governor Lincoln, nearly half a century ago, possessed a splendid crystal, quite three inches in length and of great purity and brilliancy. Some very beautiful transparent blue crystals of beryl have recently been found in the western part of Oxford County, Maine, which have yielded gems of considerable value. Probably active search for this mineral in this region will bring to light some charming specimens.

New Hampshire is famous for its gigantic beryls; and the localities of Acworth and Grafton have yielded some enormous crystals. One was removed by Mr. Alger, of more than a ton in weight; and a still larger one was observed by Mr. Hubbard, who estimated its weight at two and one half tons. These gross specimens are generally opaque, with patches of translucent or even transparent mineral on their sides. The regularity of their crystalline forms is also much impaired or distorted.

At Haddam, in Connecticut, beautiful crystals of beryl have been discovered; and one of these of fine green color, an inch in diameter and several inches in length, was preserved in the cabinet of Colonel Gibbs. Professor Silliman possessed another fine one, seven inches in length.

The mountains in Colorado have yielded some fine specimens. But the finest of the beryl species come from Russia. In the Ural Mountains the crystals are small, but of fine color; in the Altai Mountains they are very large and of a greenish-blue; but in the granitic ledges of Odon Tchelon in Daouria, on the frontier of China, they are found in the greatest perfection. They occur on the summit of the mountain in irregular veins of micaceous and white indurated clay, and are greenish-yellow, pure pale-green, greenish-blue, and sky-blue. The chief matrix of the beryl all over the world is graphic granite, but it may occur in other rocks. The light green stones of Limoges, in France, appear in a vein of quartz traversing granite. At Royalston we observed them to spring seemingly from the felspar and project into smoky quartz, becoming more transparent as they advanced into the harder stone.

The beryl possesses the same crystalline form and specific gravity as the emerald, but its hardness, especially in the blue and white varieties, is sometimes greater. They are both silicates of alumina, and the only perceptible difference in the two stones is in the color. Cleaveland thought that as the emerald and beryl had the same essential characters, they might gradually pass into each other; and Klaproth, finding the oxides of both chrome and iron in one specimen, was led to take the same view. The crystals of true emerald are almost always small, with the exception of those found in the Wald district in Siberia, whilst those of the beryl vary from a few grains to more than a ton in weight. The crystals of both are almost invariably regular hexahedral prisms, sometimes slightly modified. Those of the beryl we sometimes find quite flat, as though they had been compressed by force; then again they are acicular and of extraordinary length, considering their slender diameter. Sometimes their lateral faces are longitudinally striated, and as deeply as the tourmaline, so that the edges of the prism are rendered indistinct. Other crystals are curved, and some perforated in the axis like the tourmaline, so as to contain other minerals. Sometimes they are articulated like the pillars of basalt, and separated at some distance by the intervening quartz. These modified forms give rise to curious speculations as to their formation and origin. If we admit the action of fire (which is improbable), then the separation may be easily explained; but if we insist that they were deposited in the wet way and by slow process, how can we account for the dislocation? “By electricity,” whispers a friend,—“by telluric magnetism, that wonderful unexplained and mysterious force which has caused the grand geological changes of the globe, and is still at work.”

Sometimes the crystals of beryl are of two distinct colors, but generally they are of one color, often shading into white at either extremity. They may exhibit the richest golden-yellow, or a light cerulean blue, or a clear sea-green like those described by Pliny, now called aqua-marines. “Qui viridatem puri maris imitantur.”

One distinction between beryl and quartz is afforded by the appearance of its fracture. A crystal of beryl breaks into smooth planes, the faces of which are at right angles to the axis of the prism; while the fracture of the surface of broken quartz is invariably conchoidal.

Blue beryls were highly prized by the ancients. Beautiful specimens are found in the glens of the Mourne Mountains in Ireland. But finer gems are brought from the granite district of Nertschinsk, in Siberia, and also from various localities in the Uralian and Altaian Mountains, where the Romans were supposed to have obtained them in early times.

Its name is derived from the Persian “belur,” which the Romans changed into “beryllus.” Sometimes it occurs of a rose color. A few have been found at Elba and one at Haddam by Colonel Gibbs. One of the most beautiful specimens of beryl known was discovered in Siberia. It consisted of a magnificent crystal of smoky quartz, in the base of which appeared several fine crystals of beryl, of an exquisite yellowish-green and greenish-blue.

In the princely collection of Mr. Vaux, of Philadelphia, may be seen a crystal of beryl from the Mourne Mountains of Ireland, two inches in length by five eighths of an inch in diameter. It is of a celestial blue color, much deeper in hue at one extremity than at the other. But the gem of this collection among the beryls is a specimen purchased in Russia, in 1875. It is a six-sided prism nine inches in length and six inches in circumference. The color is of a rich oily green, and several inches of its upper extremity is transparent, while the rest is translucent. It rests upon a mass of granite, and is a specimen of extraordinary size and beauty.

Mr. Clay of the same city has a remarkable prism of Siberian beryl two inches in diameter, which exhibits a tint of celestial blue externally but which appears of a decided green hue in its interior.

At the Centennial Exhibition Brazil exhibited a fine crystal of a warm celadine green color. Russia displayed some very beautiful specimens of the yellow, green, and blue beryls from Siberia. Some very beautiful crystals of emerald, both solitary and fixed in the matrix, were also exhibited from the same country.

Several of the mineralogical cabinets of Europe possess fine suites of the emerald and beryl in a great variety of forms and degrees of perfection. Those of the École des Mines at St. Petersburg, the Jardin des Plantes at Paris, and the British Museum, are of very great commercial value and mineralogical interest.

At the French Exposition in 1867, the celebrated jeweller, Froment Meurice, exhibited a beautiful specimen of modern glyptic art cut in beryl. It comprised the bust of the Emperor Napoleon III. carved in pure aqua-marine. The image was placed upon a miniature pedestal of blood-red jasper, before which the imperial eagle spread his wings and perched upon a base of red jasper, which was studded with stars of topazes, bosses of pearls, and bordered with roses formed of minute amethysts.

A beautiful blue stone adorns the summit of the crown of England, and has been described as a sapphire of unusual purity. But mineralogists affirm, that the gem is a blue beryl, and it is surmised by others that it is the identical and famous stone which Edward the Confessor wore in a ring. It is of a lovely color, oval in form, and measures 2¹⁄₁₀ inches in length by 1¹⁄₂ in width, and 1¹⁄₅ in depth.

A superb aqua-marine formerly adorned the tiara of Pope Julius II. and was considered as one of the most celebrated in the world, notwithstanding it exhibited a slight flaw. This gem, which was of an exquisite sea-green color, was 2¹⁄₁₀ inches in length and 2²⁄₅ in depth. After having been kept in the Museum of Natural History in Paris for more than three hundred years, Napoleon presented it to Pope Pius VII.

The Asiatics, and especially the Turkish officers, prize the prisms of beryl as handles to their scimetars and daggers. This fondness for decoration of sword-blades and arms is by no means confined to the soldiers of the East. The officers of Napoleon’s armies exhibited the same taste. Murat adorned the hilt of his sword with one of the finest beryls ever seen in Europe. Another famous aqua-marine formed the handle of the sword of the poet Moncrif, who, like another celebrated swordsman, the painter Caravaggio, compelled admiration of his works at the point of his sword. This blood-stained gem bore as inscription the epitomized history of the author, a quotation from the poet Theophile, “Tous mes jours sont des Mardis-gras.”

One of the most beautiful beryls known is that purchased by the English banker, Mr. Hope, and placed in his collection of gems. It weighs six and one half ounces, and cost its princely owner nearly twenty-five hundred dollars. It is reported to have come from the mine of Cangazum, in the district of Coimbatoor in India, a locality which has been long famous for its fine beryls.

The most magnificent aqua-marine described in history is that belonging to Dom Pedro. It was found in the diamond districts of Minas Geraes, in Brazil. In form and size it resembles the head of a calf. Only on one side does it preserve any trace of a crystalline form; the rest is water-worn. It is said to be of a fine color, without a flaw, and perfectly transparent.

For many ages the shrine of the Abbey of St. Denys, at Paris, received rare and valuable gems as offerings; and at the time of the French Revolution the collection had become very valuable. The iconoclasts ordered it to be separated and sold. It brought 80,000 francs, and was scattered along the commercial highways of the world, never again to be reunited. One of the finest aqua-marines, mounted in sapphires and pearls, and engraved with the portrait of Julia, the daughter of Titus, was fortunately rescued, and may now be seen in the collection of the National Library of France. This splendid gem is of the unusual magnitude of 2¹⁄₂ inches by 2¹⁄₈. For quite a thousand years it formed a part of a golden reliquary celebrated as “l’escrain de Charlemagne.” History relates that it was presented by the great Emperor before his death to the Abbey of St. Denys. This is one of the finest specimens of an ancient intaglio carved upon beryl that has survived the destructive pillage of armies and the wreck of time since the early days of the Roman Empire. It is said that specimens of antique engraving upon this gem are about as rare as those carved upon the emerald, and their rarity is believed to be due to their great value, as well as to their scarcity in the gem markets in ancient times.

Several royal relics of the lower Empire containing emeralds are still preserved, to attest the use of the gem in those days as well as the esteem in which it was held. The famous Iron Crown of Lombardy, made perhaps before the sixth century, contains several emeralds. This renowned relic is simply a circlet of gold, covering an iron nail of the cross, beaten out thin. The crown of the queen of one of the Gothic kings of Spain, of the seventh century, was recently exhumed at Toledo, and also exhibits emeralds among other gems. And there are other examples to prove the use of the emerald in mediæval times for ornamental purposes.

No other gem has been counterfeited with such perfection as the emerald; and in fact it is utterly impossible to distinguish the artificial from the real gems by the aid of the eye alone; even the little flaws, which lull the suspicions of the inexperienced, are easily produced by a dexterous blow from the mallet of the skilled artisan. Not only emeralds, but most of the gems and precious stones, are now imitated with such consummate skill as to deceive the eye; and none but experts are aware of the extent to which these fictitious gems are worn in fashionable society, for oftentimes the wearers themselves imagine that they possess the real stones. There is not one in a hundred jewellers who is acquainted with the physical properties of the gems; and very few can distinguish the diamond from the white zircon or the white topaz, the emerald from the tourmaline of similar hue, the sapphire from iolite, or the topaz from the Bohemian yellow quartz. Jewellers are governed generally by sight, which they believe to be infallible, whilst hardness and specific gravity are the only sure tests.

Artificial gems, rivalling in beauty of color the most brilliant and delicately tinted of the productions of Nature, are now made at Paris and in other European cities. The establishments at Septmoncel in the Jura alone employed a thousand persons, and fabulous quantities of the glittering pastes were made there and sent to all parts of the world.

A fine specimen of prase, when cut, affords a fair imitation of the emerald. The green fluor-spar which Haüy called “emeraude de Carthagène” may also be substituted, but the application of the file detects the trick with ease. Some of the green tourmalines approach the emeralds in hue very closely, and by artificial light it is impossible to distinguish them from each other. Fragments of quartz may be stained by being steeped in green-colored tinctures. The Greeks stained quartz so like the real gem, that Pliny exclaimed against the fraud, while declining to tell how it was done. The Ancona rubies at the present day are made by plunging quartz into a hot tincture of cochineal, which penetrates the minute fissures of the rock.

But notwithstanding the high art reached by modern glass-makers, they are yet far behind the ancients in imitating the emerald in point of hardness and lustre. Many emerald pastes of Roman times still extant are with difficulty distinguished from the real gem, so much harder and more lustrous are they than modern glass. The ancient Phœnician remains found in the island of Sardinia by Cavalier Cara, in 1856, show fine color in their enamels and glass-works. The green pigment brought home from the ruins of Thebes by Mr. Wilkinson, was shown by Dr. Ure to consist of blue glass in powder, with yellow ochre and colorless glass. From Greek inscriptions dating from the period of the Peloponnesian war, we learn that there were signets of colored glass among the gems in the treasury of the Parthenon.

Of all the emerald imitations that have descended to us from antiquity, none are more remarkable, none more interesting to the antiquary and historian, than the famous Sacro Catino of the cathedral of Genoa. This celebrated relic is a glass dish, or patera, fourteen inches in width, five inches in depth, and of the richest transparent green color, though disfigured by several flaws. It was bestowed upon the Republic of Genoa by the Crusaders, after the capture of Cæsarea in 1101, and was regarded as an equivalent for a large sum of money due from the Christian army. It was traditionally believed to have been presented to King Solomon by the Queen of Sheba, and afterward preserved in the Temple; and some accounts relate that it was used by Christ at the institution of the Lord’s supper. The Genoese received it with so much veneration and faith, that twelve nobles were appointed to guard it, and it was exhibited but once a year, when a priest held it up in his hand to the view of the passing throng. The State, in 1319, in a time of pressing need, pawned the holy relic for 1,200 marks of gold ($200,000), and redeemed it with a promptness which proved its belief in the reality of the material, as well as in its sanctity. And it is also related that the Jews, during a period of fifty years, lent the Republic 4,000,000 francs, holding the sacred relic as a pledge of security. Seven hundred years passed away, when Napoleon came; and as he swept down over Italy, gathering her art treasures, he ordered the “Holy Grail” to be conveyed to Paris. It was deposited in the Cabinet of Antiquities in the Imperial Library, and the mineralogists quickly discovered it to be glass. It is due to the memory of Condamine to state that he was the first to doubt the material of the Sacro Catino; for, when examining it by lamplight in 1757, in the presence of the Princes Corsini, he observed none of the cracks, clouds, and specks common to emeralds, but detected little bubbles of air. In 1815, the Allies ordered its return to the cathedral of Genoa. During this journey the beautiful relic was broken; but its fragments were restored by a skilful artisan, and it is now supported upon a tripod, the fragments being held together by a band of gold filigree. This remarkable object of antiquity, which is of extraordinary beauty of material and workmanship, furnishes a theme over which the antiquaries love to muse and wrangle.

Another of the antique monster emeralds, weighing twenty-nine pounds, was presented to the abbey of Reichenau, near Constance, by Charlemagne. Beckman has also detected this precious relic to be glass. And probably the great emerald of two pounds weight brought home from the Holy Land by one of the dukes of Austria, and now deposited in the collection at Vienna, is of the same material. Another, more than eight inches long, was preserved in the chapel of St. Wenceslaus at Prague. The hardness of our glass is yet far inferior to that of the ancients; and even the ruby lustre of the potters of Umbria, which was so precious to the dilettanti of the Cinque Cento period, has not been recovered.

The enormous emerald dishes and statues and obelisks described by Herodotus, Theophrastus, Appian, and others were undoubtedly constructed of glass, and exhibited to the ignorant multitudes as formed of monster emeralds.

One of the most curious of these impositions was the sculptured lion on the tomb of Hermias on the island of Cyprus, which had emerald eyes which shone so brightly as to frighten away the fish in the sea near by.

The wonderful “Table of Solomon” which formed a part of Alaric’s Roman spoils, and was taken by his Goths to Spain, where it was captured by the Arab invaders and afterwards sent to Damascus, was probably another specimen of the ingenuity of the glass-workers of Alexandria or Tyre. It is described by one of the Arabian historians as of a marvellous beauty, being formed of a single slab of solid emerald, encircled with rows of pearls, and supported on many feet composed of gems and gold.

The famous Barberini vase, found in one of the tombs of the Roman emperors, and exhibiting white figures upon a dark-blue ground, was long thought to be carved from some variety of sardonyx, but proved in modern times to be of hard antique glass. Of similar material the unique ewer in the Brescian Museum and the vases in the Palace Borbonico are composed, and all of these are of great antiquity. The sapphire cup of Theolinda, the once celebrated Queen of Lombardy, now preserved in the Cathedral at Monza, is glass.

There are but very few stones whose colors resemble that of the emerald, and therefore frauds are easily detected. A well-selected specimen of prase may be passed as an inferior emerald, as well as the translucent stones cut from the Chinese jade; but their want of transparency offers a serious objection to them as a gem. The green tourmaline, when it approaches the emerald in hue, is of equal value. The green zircon and the green spinel would be far superior to the emerald in brilliancy, and therefore of greater value to the amateur. The chrome-green garnet of Hungary and the emerald-green garnet of Siberia would command a high price, if of pure color, as they surpass the glucina emerald in eclat and are moreover exceedingly rare. The peridot may assume the exact hue of the Granada emerald. The glass imitations are almost fac-similes in hue, and are far superior in brilliancy to the mineral itself; but their softness, which readily yields to the file, betrays their nature without difficulty.

Since the time of the Spanish Conquest, New Granada has furnished the world with the most of its emeralds. The most famous mines are at Muzo, in the valley of Tunca, between the mountains of New Granada and Popayan, about seventy-five miles from Santa Fé de Bogota, where every rock, it is said, contains an emerald. At present the supply of emeralds is very limited, owing to restrictions on trade, and want of capital and energy in mining operations.

Blue as well as green emeralds are found in the Cordillera of the Cubillan. The Esmeraldas mines in Equador are said to have been worked successfully at one period by the Jesuits. The Peruvians obtained many emeralds from the barren district of Atacama, and in the times of the Conquest there were quarries on the River of Emeralds near Barbacoas. Emeralds of a poor quality are found at Limoges in France, and also in Norway. In some of the felspar quarries in Finland they occur in large thick crystals, several feet in thickness, of a fine color, but not transparent.

Emeralds are found in Siberia, and some of the localities may have furnished to the ancients the Scythian gems which Pliny and others mention. In the Wald district magnificent crystals have been found embedded in mica-slate. One of these—a twin-crystal, now in the imperial cabinet at St. Petersburg—is seven inches long, four inches broad, and weighs four and a half pounds. There is another mass in the same collection which measures fourteen inches long by twelve broad and five thick, weighing sixteen and three-quarter pounds troy. This group shows twenty crystals from a half inch to five inches long, and from one to two inches broad. They were discovered by a peasant cutting wood near the summit of the mountain. His eye was attracted by the lustrous sparkling amongst the decomposed mica where the ground had been exposed by the uprooting of a tree by the violence of the wind. He collected a number of the crystals, and brought them to Katharineburg and showed them to M. Kokawin, who recognized them and sent them to St. Petersburg, where they were critically examined by Van Worth and pronounced to be emeralds. One of these crystals was presented by the Emperor to Humboldt when he visited St. Petersburg, and it is now deposited in the Berlin collection. Quite a number of emeralds are now brought from the Siberian localities, and it is believed that enterprise and capital would produce a large supply of the gem.

Near Salsberg, in the Tyrol, the emerald occurs in a mica-slate which appears on the face of a very steep precipice difficult of access, and about 8,700 feet above the sea-level. They are of good color, but much impaired in their transparency by foreign matter and imperfect crystallization. Some of the finest stones yielded by this locality were exhibited as cabinet specimens by the Emperor of Russia at the Paris Exposition.

The supply of emeralds from South America is very limited, and may be ascribed to want of skilful mining, as well as to climate, the political condition of the country, and the indolence of its inhabitants. The localities cannot be exhausted, for they are too numerous and extensive. The elevated regions in Granada admit of scientific exploration by Europeans, and at the present day the only emerald-mining operations conducted in South America have been prosecuted near Santa Fé de Bogota by a French company, which has paid the Government $14,000 yearly for the right of mining, all the emeralds obtained being sent to Paris to be cut by the lapidaries of that city. In the Atacama districts, and along the banks of the River of Emeralds, the physical obstructions are difficult to overcome; and pestilential diseases of malignant character forbid the long sojourn of the European. Yet the introduction of Chinese labor may prove successful and highly remunerative, since the coolie reared among the jungles and rice-swamps of Southern China is quite as exempt from malarial fevers as the negro.

Hassaurek was surprised not to find emeralds for sale at Guayaquil, as they had been found in abundance in Equador at the time of the Conquest. The Alcalde of the region around the River Bechile gave Stephenson, the traveller, three emeralds which were found in the sands at the mouth of the river.

Concerning the emerald mines whence the ancients drew their supplies of gems, there remains but little positive information. They were undoubtedly established in Arabia, Africa, and Scythia, but all record of them is lost. As regards the Egyptian mines, modern travellers have proved their existence. At the ancient mines at Gebel Zabara, which were worked in the time of the Ptolemies, M. Callaud found the tools of the miners as they had left them, and also many inferior emeralds among the débris of the pits. Mehemet Ali attempted to reopen them, but was unsuccessful, as the matrix of the gem proved to be exhausted. This discovery establishes the truth of Pliny’s remark concerning some of the localities of the emerald. They are the same gems whose beauty was praised by the Persian poets. We have no evidence of ancient mines of emeralds in Asia; and Tavernier, who sought in vain to discover them, ventured to state that he believed that some of the emeralds he saw in India must have come from Peru, by way of the Philippine Islands, long before the Conquest by the Spaniards.

Other mines undoubtedly were worked in Africa; and we know that in the time of Justinian, the Abyssinians searched the coast, even as far as the equator. The African emeralds were not of the first quality; and at a later period of Roman history the Scythian emeralds were reckoned as the first in value and beauty, the Bactrian second, while the African were classed as third. About the fourth century the throne of the White Huns was famous for the splendid Scythian emeralds which adorned it.

The price of the emerald has no fixed and extended scale, like that of the diamond, and the fluctuations of its value during the past three centuries form an interesting chapter in the history of gems. In the time of Dutens (1777) the price of small stones of the first quality was one louis the karat; one and a half karats, five louis; two karats, ten louis; and beyond this weight no rule of value could be established. In De Boot’s day (1600) emeralds were so plenty as to be worth only a quarter as much as the diamond. The markets were glutted with the frequent importations from Peru, and thirteen years before the above-mentioned period one vessel brought from South America two hundred and three pounds of fine emeralds, worth at the present valuation more than seven millions of dollars. At the beginning of this century, according to Caire, they were worth no more than twenty-four francs (or about five dollars) the karat, and for a long time antecedent to 1850, they were valued at only $15 the karat. Since this period they have become very rare, and their valuation has advanced enormously. In fact, the value of the emerald now exceeds that of the diamond, and is rapidly approaching the ratio fixed by Benvenuto Cellini in the middle of the sixteenth century, which rated the emerald at four times, and the ruby at eight times, the value of the diamond. Fine stones (the emerald is exceedingly liable to flaw, the beryl is more free, and the green sapphire is rarely impaired by fissures or cracks) of one karat in weight are worth at the present day $200 or more. Fine gems of two karats weight will command $500; while larger stones are sold at extravagant prices.

Most of our aqua-marines come from Brazil and Siberia, and small stones are sold at trifling prices. Some of them, however, when perfect and of fine color, command fabulous sums. The superb little beryl found at Mouzzinskaia is valued by the Russians at the enormous sum of $120,000, although the crystal weighs but little more than one ounce. Another rough prism preserved in the Museum at Paris, and weighing less than one hundred grains, has received the tempting offer of 15,000 francs.