5. Jasper and Agates.—Jasper (in granites and porphyries) in Niolo, and the valley of Stagno; agates (also in the granites and porphyries) in the same localities.
6. Marble and Alabaster.—White statuary marble of dazzling splendour at Ortiporio, Casacconi, Borgo de Cavignano, and elsewhere; bluish gray marble at Corte; yellow alabaster in the valley of S. Lucia, near Bastia; white alabaster, semi-transparent, foliated and fibrous, in a grotto behind Tuara, in the gulf of Girolata.
CHAPTER V.
A SECOND LESSON, THE VEGETATION OF CORSICA.
It was an instructive lesson that Francesco Marmocchi, quondam professor of natural history, quondam minister of Tuscany, now Fuoruscito, and poor solitary student, gave me, that rosiest of all morning hours as we stood high up on the green Mount Cardo, the fair Mediterranean extended at our feet, exactly of such a colour as Dante has described: color del Oriental zaffiro.
"See," said Marmocchi, "where the blue outline shows itself, yonder is the beautiful Toscana."
Ah, I see Toscana well; plainly I see fair Florence, and the halls where the statues of the great Tuscans stand, Giotto, Orcagna, Nicola Pisano, Dante, Petrarca, Boccacio, Macchiavelli, Galilei, and the godlike Michael Angelo; three thousand Croats—I can see them—are parading there among the statues; the air is so clear, you can see and hear everything: listen, Francesco, to the verses the marble Michael Angelo is now addressing to Dante:—
"Dear is to me my sleep, and that I am of stone;
While this wo lasts, this ignominy deep,
To see nought, and to hear nought, that alone