SPLENDOR OF MALACHITE COLUMNS.
In the great Exhibition of 1851, and in the Paris Exposition of 1867, wonderful specimens of this curious production of nature were exhibited. There were large doors of solid malachite, polished to the smoothness of mirrors, and the material was exhibited cut in various shapes. It is used for the manufacture of vases of all sizes, and is frequently worn as jewelry. In the Paris Exposition one piece was exhibited nearly ten feet in length. It was in its rough state, with the exception of one side, where it was highly polished.
In some of the Russian churches, particularly in the Church of St. Isaacs, at St. Petersburg, there are pillars twenty, thirty, and fifty feet in height, apparently of solid malachite. I say apparently, for the reason that the pillars are really of granite, and have been veneered with malachite. Some years ago, a vase was sent as a present by the Emperor of Russia to His Holiness the Pope, and has since been on exhibition in the Vatican. The vase is large enough to enable His Holiness to use it, if he so desired, as a bath-tub, or an aquarium. To the untaught spectator it is apparently of pure malachite, but a close observer will discover the lines where its fragments, or more properly the fragments of its veneering, are joined, for the vase is of stone covered with malachite, just as the pillars in St. Isaacs Church are covered. It is very pretty and very valuable, and visitors often remain long around it to study its beauty.
The annual production of copper is about eighty thousand tons. Of this, Great Britain and Chili produce about one fourth each, Russia produces one eighth, and America about one tenth. The rest of the production is shared by various parts of South America, by Cuba, by Sweden and Norway, Australia, and various parts of Europe. Asia produces about one twentieth of the full amount, but from Africa and Southern Europe only a small quantity is obtained.
LVIII.
THE CATACOMBS OF ROME.
THEIR AGE AND EXTENT.—THE SEVEN HILLS HONEYCOMBED.—HOW THE CATACOMBS WERE MADE.—THEIR USES.—THE CHRISTIAN MARTYRS.—IMMENSE BURIAL VAULTS.—MILLIONS OF PERSONS BURIED.—RESORTS OF ROBBERS.—STRANGE ADVENTURES.—VISITING THE CHURCH OF THE CAPUCHINS.—FANCY OF AN IRREVERENT AMERICAN.—DOWN THE CATACOMBS.—STORY OF THE GUIDE.—STRANGE EXPERIENCE OF TWO AMERICANS.
Many cities of the old world can boast of catacombs. Those of Paris are famous in their way for the large number of skeletons which have been deposited in them. The catacombs in and near other cities have the same peculiarity, and the walls are frescoed and festooned with bones which are placed so as to form fantastic shapes, reflecting much credit upon the persons who arranged them.