Diamonds--Diamond Cutting--Rose Diamonds--Brilliants--The Diamond District in Brazil--Diamond Lavras--The great Russian Diamond--The Regent--The Koh-i-Noor--Its History--The Star of the South--Diamonds used for Industrial Purposes--The Oriental Ruby and Sapphire--The Spinel--The Chrysoberyl--The Emerald--The Beryl--The Zircon--The Topaz--The Oriental Turquoise--The Garnet--Lapis Lazuli--The Noble Opal--Inferior Precious Stones--The Agate-Cutters of Oberstein--Rock Crystal--The Rock-crystal Grotto of the Galenstock. In former ages superstition ascribed a strange mysterious power to precious stones. Gems of conspicuous size or lustre were supposed to confer health and prosperity on their owners, to preserve them in the midst of the most appalling dangers, or even to give them a command over the world of spirits. The crucible of modern chemistry has, indeed, effectually dispelled these illusions of a poetic fancy; but the precious stones have lost nothing in value by their nature being better known. They are still the favourite and most costly ornaments of wealth and beauty, and they still deservedly rank among the wonders of creation. For surely no fabled talismanic virtues can be more worthy of admiration than that natural power which in the secret laboratories of the subterranean world has caused their atoms to unite in lustrous crystals, and imparted to such vulgar materials as carbon, clay, or sand the gorgeous reflections of the rainbow or the glorious colours of the setting sun. The diamond, it is almost unnecessary to say, is the chief of precious stones, none other equalling it in brilliancy and refractive energy. Although generally colourless, like pure rock-crystal, yet it is also found of every variety of tint, from a roseate hue to crimson red, or from a pale yellow to dark As the rough stones are rarely found with an even or transparent surface, the assistance of art is required to develop their full beauty. The diamond, being by far the hardest of all substances, can only be cut and polished by itself. Hence the lapidaries begin their operations by rubbing several diamonds against each other while rough, after having first glued them to the ends of two wooden blocks thick enough to be held in the hand. It is the powder thus rubbed off the stones, and received in a little box for the purpose, that serves to grind and polish them. The process of diamond-cutting is effected by a horizontal iron plate of about ten inches’ diameter, called a schyf or mill, which revolves from two thousand to three thousand times per minute, and is sprinkled over with diamond dust mixed with oil of olives. The diamond is fixed in a ball of pewter at the end of an arm resting upon the table on which the plate revolves; the other end, at which the ball containing the diamond is fixed, is pressed upon the wheel by movable weights at the discretion of the workman. The method of cutting and polishing diamonds was unknown in Europe before the fifteenth century, but appears to have been practised long before in India, though in a rude manner. The original facetting of the Koh-i-Noor was the work of an unknown and prehistoric age. The diamonds which were employed as ornaments before that period, as for instance the four large stones which enrich the clasp of the imperial mantle of Charlemagne, as now preserved in Paris, remained in their rough and uncut state. The invention is ascribed to Louis von Berguen, a native of Bruges, then the great emporium of Western trade and luxury, who in the year 1476 cut the fine diamond of Charles the Bold; and ever since that time Antwerp and Amsterdam Diamonds are generally cut either as rose diamonds or as brilliants. The rose diamond is flat beneath, while the upper face rises into a dome, and is cut into facets. The brilliant, which is always three times as thick as the rose diamond, is likewise cut into facets, but so as to form two pyramids rising from a common central base or girdle. Each pyramid is truncated at the top by a section parallel to the girdle, which cuts off 5/18 of the whole height from the upper one, and 1/18 from the lower one. The superior and larger plane thus produced is called the table; and the inferior and smaller one is called the collet. Although the rose diamond projects bright beams of light in more extensive proportion often than the brilliant, yet the latter shows an incomparably greater play, from the difference of its cutting. In executing this there are formed thirty-two faces of different figures, and inclined at different angles all round the table on the upper side of the stone, while on the under side twenty-four other faces are made round the small table. It is essential that the faces of the top and the bottom shall correspond together in sufficiently exact proportions to multiply the reflections and refractions, so as to produce the gorgeous display of prismatic colours which renders the brilliant so pre-eminently beautiful. From the hardness of the diamond, its cutting is a very tedious and expensive operation, requiring more time in the proportion of fifty to one than the cutting of the sapphire, which comes next to it in hardness. Experiment has determined that the diamond consists of pure carbon, so that the same substance which in its common black state is utterly worthless in very small quantities, becomes the most costly of precious stones, when it makes its appearance in the crystalline form. Already Newton, by observing the extraordinary refractive power of the diamond, had been led to place it among combustibles; but Cosmo III., Grand Duke of Tuscany, was the first who proved the truth of this bold conjecture by actual observation. He exposed diamonds to the heat of the powerful burning glass of TschÎrnhausen, and saw them vanish in a few moments into The most anciently renowned diamond districts are situated in the Indian peninsula, in the kingdoms of Golconda and Visapour, extending from Cape Comorin to Bengal, at the foot of a chain of mountains called the Orixa, which appear to belong to the trap-rock formation. Tavernier describes them as giving employment to thousands of workmen, but they seem now to be all but exhausted. We are but little acquainted with the diamond mines of Landak in Borneo, though Ida Pfeiffer, on her second voyage round the world, obtained permission to visit them, a favour but rarely accorded to strangers by the suspicious potentate to whom they belong. So much is certain, that very few stones from this quarter find their way to the civilised world, which at present draws its chief supplies from the mines of Serro do Frio and Sincora in Brazil. When diamonds were first found in the Serro do Frio, about the beginning of the last century, the real value of the glittering crystals was so little known that they were made use of as card-marks by the planters of the neighbourhood. An inspector of mines, who had been some time in India, was the first who discovered their true nature. Wisely keeping his secret to himself, he collected a large quantity of them, and escaped with his treasure to Europe. In 1729, the governor of Brazil, Don LourenÇo de Almeida, sent some of the transparent stones of the Serro to the court of Lisbon with the remark that he supposed them to be diamonds, and thus the attention of Government was at length attracted to their value. By a decree of the 8th of February, 1730, the diamond district was placed under the rule of an Intendant, armed with the most arbitrary powers. Not only all strangers were carefully excluded from its limits, but not even a Portuguese or a Brazilian was allowed to tread its forbidden ground without a special permission; its population was limited to a scanty number, nor durst the foundation But in spite of every precaution, it was impossible to put down the contraband trade in diamonds. The audacity of the smugglers increased with the obstacles placed in their way, so that a far more considerable quantity of diamonds was secretly sold and exported than ever came into the hands of Government. Traversing the deep forests on almost inaccessible mountain paths, the bold free-traders met, at some place of appointment, the negroes who had been able to secrete some of the precious stones, and paid them a trifle for diamonds which beyond the limits of the district were worth at least twenty times the price given. Sometimes even the smugglers searched for diamonds themselves in the unfrequented wilderness. While some were washing the sands, others kept watch upon an eminence, and gave notice of the approach of the soldiers, who were constantly patrolling the district. The heaviest penalties could not prevent the inhabitants of the Serra from defrauding the Crown, and Herr von Tschudi (‘Travels in South America in 1857–1861’) was told many amusing instances of their smuggling contrivances. One of them had concealed a diamond of twenty-five carats in the handle of his riding whip, for which purpose he had practised for many weeks the art of plaiting the thin leather straps which covered it, and another had secreted his precious stones in a kettle with a double bottom. When the Brazils became an independent country, the monopoly of the diamond trade was abandoned by the new Government, and any speculator was allowed to search for diamonds on payment of a slight duty. The precious stones are found chiefly in alluvial deposits (Cascalho virgem), in the beds of torrents, or along low river-banks, and frequently The negroes employed in the diamond washings are generally hired by the miners at so many milrees a week. Although their labour is very severe, they generally prefer it to any other, as on Sundays and Feast-days they are allowed to search on their own account (of course in places not previously occupied), and have, moreover, an opportunity of stealing diamonds. The profits thus lawfully or unlawfully made they generally spend in drinking, a slave but very rarely saving The total produce of Brazil is estimated at about 300,000 carats, annually worth on the spot from 300 to 500 milrees the oitava (17½ carats). The miners rarely make a fortune, as their expenses are very great; the chief profits of the diamond trade fall to the share of the merchants, who purchase the stones in the mining districts and then sort and export them. The price of diamonds is subject to considerable fluctuations, which, proceeding from the markets of London, Paris, and Amsterdam, are most sensibly felt in the diamond districts, for the great European houses in whose hands the trade of the rough stones is concentrated, and who dispose of considerable capital, are able to wait for better times, while the small Brazilian trader or miner is soon obliged, for want of money, to sell his stones at any price. After the breaking out of the Crimean war, diamonds were very much depreciated at Diamantina. They were offered for sale at absurdly low prices, and even then a purchaser was rarely to be found. The market improved very slowly; but when the war was at an end, the prices once more rose to a height which had never been known before. The commercial crisis in North America and Europe at the end of 1857, and in the beginning of 1858, caused a new reaction, the effects of which Tschudi was able to note during his stay at Diamantina. ‘Good ware’ (fazenda regular e boa), consisting of stones averaging a vintem While the price of the smaller stones of about a vintem or less is regulated by the exporters in Rio, conjointly with the European houses, fancy prices are asked at Diamantina for larger stones of several carats. A fine diamond of an oitava sells for about three contos of rees (360l.), and one of two oitavas, or thirty-five carats, is often sold on the spot for ten to twelve contos (1200l.-1440l.). During the last thirty years, diamonds have risen about forty per cent. in price in Europe, a natural consequence of the increase of wealth and luxury while the supply of the article continues to be limited. As, however, many large stones have recently been found in South Africa, and Australia now adds the diamond to her many sources of natural wealth, its value will probably once more decline. When cut and polished, a brilliant of the first or purest water in England, weighing one carat, is valued at 12l., a rose diamond of the same weight at 8l., while the value of all those of a larger size is calculated by multiplying the square of the weight in carats by twelve or eight, except for those exceeding twenty carats, the price of which increases at a much more rapid rate. The enormous value ascribed to large diamonds is, however, merely fanciful, for they are worth neither more nor less than what purchasers may be inclined or able to give for them. According to the above valuation, stones weighing 100 carats would be worth at least (100 × 100 = 10,000 × 12) 120,000l.; a sum which has probably never yet been paid for a diamond of that weight. A very trifling spot or flaw of any kind lowers exceedingly the commercial value of a diamond. The number of large diamonds is very small. Among ten thousand stones, the Brazilian mines furnish but one that weighs ten carats; diamonds above twenty carats are very rare, and in all Europe there are but five diamonds of more than one hundred carats. Of somewhat smaller size, but of unparallelled beauty, is the magnificent diamond called the Pitt or Regent, which Mr. Pitt, grandfather of the famous Lord Chatham, into whose possession it had come while governor of Madras, sold to the Duke of Orleans, Regent of France, for 135,000l. having himself paid 12,500l. for it to Tamohund, the most famous native dealer in India. It originally weighed 410 carats, but has been reduced to 136¾ by cutting it into a brilliant—an operation which is said to have lasted two years. It is now the first among the jewels belonging to the French Government; Napoleon used to wear it in the hilt of his sword. During the five years the stone remained in his possession, Governor Pitt is said to have lived in such constant dread of having it stolen, that he never made known beforehand the day of his coming to town, nor slept two nights following in the same house. If this story be true, great indeed must have been his relief when he parted with his gem, which, though small in weight, was to him a true millstone in anxiety. The diamond of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, which weighs 139½ carats, and is consequently a trifle larger than the Regent, once belonged to Charles the Bold of Burgundy, and at the battle of Nancy fell into the hands of an ignorant trooper, who plucked the gem from the helmet of the unfortunate duke and sold it for a crown. At a later period it came into the possession of the Court of Tuscany, and is now the first crown jewel of the Emperor of Austria. ‘the mildest-mannered man With all true breeding of a gentleman,’ insisted on exchanging turbans in proof of his regard; and is said to have bestowed upon the diamond thus politely annexed the name of Koh-i-Noor. After the fall of his dynasty, the stone became the property of Ahmed Shah, the founder of the Abdali dynasty of Kabul, and, when Mr. Elphinstone was at Peshawur, was worn by his successor Shah Shuja, on his arm. When Shah Shuja was driven from Kabul, he became the nominal guest and actual prisoner of Runjeet Singh, who, following the good example of Nadir Shah, gently persuaded his protegÉ to part with his diamond for the revenues of three villages, not one rupee of which he ever realised. ‘By what do you estimate its value?’ asked the Sikh Maharajah of his victim, as the surrendered Koh-i-Noor lay on the arm of his new master. ‘By its good luck,‘ said Shah Shuja, ‘for it hath ever been his who hath conquered his enemies.’ Subsequent events fully proved the truth of this remark, for when the Punjab was annexed by the British Government, it was stipulated among other conditions that the Koh-i-Noor should be presented to the Queen of England. But in spite of its promising name, the ‘Mountain of Light’ was but of inferior lustre, for the Orientals are mere bunglers in the art of diamond-cutting, and lay greater weight upon the size than upon the brilliancy of a jewel. Hence it All these large diamonds originally came from India; but latterly they have been rivalled by a stone of Brazilian origin, originally weighing 254½ carats, but reduced by cutting to 125, which has received the poetical name of ‘Estrella do Sul’ or Star of the South. It is a singular fact that as yet this beautiful gem has brought good luck to none of its possessors. An old negro woman accidentally found it in a diamond mine at the Rio da Bagagem, in Minas Geraes, among a heap of pebbles that had been previously washed. She gave it to her master, who did not even reward her with her liberty, and superstition has traced all the ill-luck attached to the stone to that ungenerous act. The first proprietor of the diamond was a needy man, who for a trifling sum had been allowed by the proprietor of the mine to search for stones with the few slaves he possessed. The proprietor now claimed the diamond, alleging that it had not been found on the premises hired by the former; and a law suit, profitable of course to none but the lawyers, was the consequence. To be able to defend his cause, the possessor of the stone pawned it to the Brazilian Bank for about 8,000l., for which he had to pay fifteen per cent. commission and a high interest. The law suit, as may naturally be supposed, lasted so long that the man died before it was decided, and but a very small sum of money remained to his widow. After passing through several hands, the stone was purchased at Rio for a million of francs, by a Dutch jeweller, who, to make up this considerable sum, was obliged to borrow money at the usual high interest of the place. He took the stone with him to Amsterdam, where it was cut, at an expense of about 4,000l. The uncut stone belonging to the King of Portugal, and weighing 1,680 carats, is now well known to be not, as was supposed, the greatest diamond in the world, but a mere white topaz. The quality of another stone of 138½ carats, found near the Rio Abaete in 1791, and likewise in the Portuguese treasury, has not been determined. So much, however, is certain, that the Portuguese Crown possesses (or possessed a few years ago) the richest collection of diamonds in the world, the value of which was estimated at about 3,000,000l.(?) Of all the stones annually sent to Lisbon by the General Intendant of the diamond districts, the king selected the largest and finest for the royal treasury, and the others were sold. When King Joao VI. returned in 1821 from Brazil to Portugal, he carried along with him almost as many diamonds as Voltaire’s Candide on his escape from Eldorado. The jewels were deposited in sealed bags in the vaults of the Lisbon Bank, where they remained forty years as a dead capital. In 1863 it was at length very wisely resolved, with the consent of the Cortes, to sell these rough diamonds, and to invest the proceeds for the benefit of the civil list. Though diamonds are usually washed out from the soil, yet they also generally occur in regions that afford a laminated granular quartz rock, called Itacolumite, which in thin slabs is translucent and more or less flexible. This rock occurs in the mines of Brazil and the Urals, and also in Georgia and North Carolina, where a few diamonds have been The mineral substance that ranks next to the diamond, whether we estimate it by its hardness, the splendour of its colour, or its rareness, is that called by the mineralogists Corundum. It consists of pure crystallised alumina (the oxide of the now well-known metal aluminium), variously tinted by the addition of small quantities of iron or chromium. To this class belong the ruby, the sapphire, the topaz, the emerald, the amethyst, and other stones of gorgeous colour, distinguished by the epithet ‘oriental’ prefixed to the name. The Oriental Ruby, or Red Sapphire, is the red stone par excellence of jewellery, and, from its fiery lustre, probably identical with the carbuncle of Pliny, and the anthrax or ‘burning coal’ of Theophrastus. Its finest colour is a most rich and lovely crimson, known as the pigeon’s blood tint; but its scarlet tints are also most beautiful. The red rays of the prism falling on a ruby produce a charming effect. Pegu is the land of rubies, and Australia now likewise furnishes stones of excellent quality. A perfect ruby above three and a half carats is more valuable than a diamond of the same weight. If it weigh one carat it is worth ten guineas; two carats, forty guineas; three carats, one hundred and fifty guineas; six carats, above one thousand guineas. The largest oriental ruby known to be in the world was brought The blue variety of the corundum is the Oriental Sapphire of the jeweller. There is one hue of it of a soft pure azure, distinguished from the commoner kinds by its retaining its fine blue even by candlelight, when an ordinary sapphire looks purple or black. Unlike the ruby, it occurs in specimens of a considerable size. A good blue stone of ten carats is valued at fifty guineas. If it weighs twenty carats its value is two hundred guineas, but under ten carats the price may be estimated by multiplying the square of its weight in carats into half a guinea; thus one of four carats would be worth eight guineas. A sapphire of a barbel-blue colour, weighing six carats, was disposed of in Paris by public sale for 70l.; and another of an indigo blue, weighing 6 carats and 3 grains, brought 60l., both of which sums much exceed what the preceding rule assigns, from which we may perceive how far fancy may go in such matters. The Spinels, whose transparent and more precious forms consist essentially of alumina combined with magnesia, and tinted perhaps with iron, include two resplendent stones, the Spinel Ruby, a scarlet variety of considerable fire and of rich colour, and the Balais or Balass Ruby, thus called from one of the most celebrated localities of the spinel in former times, namely Beloochistan or Balastan. The latter is of a delicate and rarely deep rose-colour, showing a blue tint when looked through, and a redder one when it is looked at. Both of these minerals are termed rubies by the jewellers, and the deeper-tinted kinds are sometimes sold for the true stone. In fact, nearly all the large and famous gems that pass under the name of rubies belong to this species, as for instance the ancient ruby in the crown of England, which was presented to Edward the Black Prince by Don Pedro the Cruel, and the enormous stone, time-honoured in Indian tradition, that came along with the Koh-i-Noor into Her Majesty’s possession. Such was the superstitious value attached to it by its former proprietor, Runjeet Singh, that he would sooner have lost a province than this stone. When the weight of a good The Chrysoberyl, called also by the jewellers the Oriental Chrysolite, is a stone of almost adamantine lustre and transparence. It is a compound of alumina and the rare oxide glucina, a constituent of the beryl. It has usually a peculiar, sometimes a very delicate greenish yellow or primrose colour, and is then one of the most beautiful of gems. The finer specimens are from Brazil. The Emerald and the Beryl are one and the same mineral—a silicate of alumina and glucina, which owes to a small trace of iron its blue, pink, or yellow tints, or else to a little chromium the transcendent green which characterises it as the emerald. The colour of this beautiful gem is so pleasant to the eye that the ancients attributed to it the power of strengthening and relieving the sight when fatigued by previous exertions. Both from its beauty and rareness they held it in high estimation, and Pliny ranks the emerald in value immediately after the diamond and the oriental pearl. In the Egyptian tombs real emeralds are sometimes found as the ornaments of regal mummies, and they have not seldom been discovered among the ruins of Rome, or at Herculaneum and Pompeii. Scythia, Bactria, and Egypt were renowned among the ancients as the countries which furnished the most beautiful emeralds. At present these precious stones are obtained chiefly from New Granada and Siberia, in which latter country they occur of much larger size, but of less beauty, and consequently far inferior value. The first Siberian emeralds were discovered in the year 1831, in the neighbourhood of Catharinenburg, by some peasants, while making tar, and other mines were opened in 1834 ten versts distant from the former. Here was found an enormous stone, fourteen inches long and twelve broad, and weighing 16¾ lbs. troy, and another superb specimen consisting of twenty crystals, from half an inch to five inches long, and as much as two inches thick, embedded in a matrix of mica-schist. Both these monstrous gems now rank among the chief ornaments of the Imperial Mineralogical Cabinet. When the Spaniards conquered Peru, they found many The price of emeralds varies considerably, according to their purity, the beauty of their colour, their lustre, and their size. Before the discovery of America, they were uncommonly dear, all knowledge of the old mines having been lost, so that the emeralds still used as ornaments were all ancient. Afterwards their value decreased, when a greater quantity was imported from Peru; but recently they have again risen in price, as America at present furnishes but few good stones. A splendid specimen in the possession of Mr. Hope, weighing six ounces, cost 500l.; another fine American emerald belonging to the Duke of Devonshire is two inches long, and weighs above eight ounces, but, owing to flaws, it is but partially fit for jewellery. The Beryl, which exhibits every gradation of tint, from a pale azure blue to a fine mountain green, and also occurs in a pale orange yellow variety, is found in great perfection at Oduntschilon and Mursinsk in Siberia. A beautifully clear crystal, ten inches long, discovered in the latter locality in 1828, and forming part of the mineralogical museum at Petersburg, is valued at 8,000l. Formerly Brazil and Cangayum in the Deccan were in much repute as fields in which the beryl was found, and many a brilliant little stone has been furnished by the Mourne Mountains in Ireland. The Zircon consists of the mixed oxides of silicon and of the rare element zirconium, and is one of the heaviest and most lustrous of gem-stones. Its colourless variety is the The Topaz, a silicate of alumina and fluorine, is found chiefly in Siberia, Brazil, and Saxony, and is also met with in the granitic detritus of Cairngorm in Aberdeenshire. The colourless Brazilian variety (Pingo d’agoa, or waterdrop) surpasses rock-crystal in purity and refractive power, and being of the same weight as the diamond, is sometimes mistaken for it. The pale yellow topaz when heated in a crucible assumes a rose-red colour, and is then called by the jewellers ruby of Brazil. The Saxon topaz, on the other hand, becomes white when exposed to heat, and thus deprived of colour is sold for the diamond. In ancient times the topaz was highly esteemed; but, in spite of its beauty, it is not now considered of very great value, from its being too frequently found, and is sold in the rough for about forty shillings per pound. When of a beautiful ‘forget-me-not’ blue, and above the size of a pea, the Oriental Turquoise, which in inferior specimens is but of little value, fetches a considerable price, so that fine stones of about half an inch in length are worth 15l. or 20l. The turquoise, which consists of phosphate of alumina coloured by oxide of copper, occurs chiefly in the mountainous range of Persia, whence it is brought by the merchants of Bochara to Moskau; but the Shah is said to retain for his own use all the larger and finely tinted specimens. Major Macdonald gives the following account of a new field for the turquoise which he discovered in Arabia PetrÆa. ‘In the year 1849, during my travels in Arabia in search of antiquities, I was led to examine a very lofty range of mountains, composed of iron sandstone, many days’ journey in the desert; and whilst descending a mountain of about six thousand feet high, by a deep and precipitous gorge, which in the winter time served to carry off the water, I found a bed of gravel, where I perceived a great many small blue objects mixed with the other stones; on collecting them I found they were turquoises of the finest colour and quality. On continuing my researches through the entire range of The Occidental or Bone Turquoise, which has generally but one-fourth of the value of the oriental, is said to be fossil bones or teeth, coloured with oxide of copper. The Garnet, a silicate of some base which may be lime, magnesia, oxide of iron, or chromium, is in its finer specimens one of the most beautiful coloured products of nature’s laboratory. By jewellers the garnets are classed as Syrian, Bohemian, or Cingalese, rather from their relative value and fineness than with any reference to the country from which they are supposed to have been brought. Those most esteemed are called Syrian garnets, not because they come from Syria, but after Syrian, the capital of Pegu, which city was formerly the chief mart for the finest garnets. Their colour is violet purple, which in some rare instances vies with that of the finest oriental amethyst; but it may be distinguished from the latter by acquiring an orange tint by candlelight. The Bohemian garnet is generally of a dull poppy-red colour, with a very perceptible hyacinth orange tint, when held between the eye and the light. When the colour is a full crimson, it is called pyrope or fire-garnet, a stone of considerable value when perfect and of large size. Garnet is easily worked, and when facet-cut is nearly always (on account of the depth of its colour) formed into thin tables, which are sometimes concave or hollowed out on the under side. Cut stones of this latter kind, when skilfully set, with a bright silver foil, have often been sold as rubies. Though Lapis Lazuli, a silicate of soda, lime, and alumina, with the sulphide of iron and sodium in minute quantities, is without transparency, and without much lustre, yet its beautiful azure-blue tints, often interspersed with yellow specks, and veins of iron pyrites, which, from their brilliant appearance in the comparatively dull blue stone, might easily be mistaken for gold, entitle it to be ranked among the semi-precious stones. The finest quality, which sells in In the long list of the crystalline or hyaline quartzes, consisting of silex or silica in various degrees of purity, there is but one variety, the Noble Opal, that ranks among precious stones of the first quality. In this beautiful gem, minute fissures are apparently striated with microscopic lines, which, diffracting the light, flash out rainbow tints of the purest and most brilliant hues. The Noble Opal, which is one of the favourite jewels of modern times, was no less highly esteemed by the ancients, ‘for in this stone,’ says Pliny, ‘we admire the fire of the ruby, the brilliant purple of the amethyst, the lustrous green of the emerald, all shining together in a wonderful mixture.’ For the sake of a magnificent opal, set in a ring, and valued at 20,000l. of our money, the senator Nonius was exiled by Mark Antony. He might have escaped banishment by presenting his opal to the covetous triumvir; but he preferred exile with his gem to staying in Rome without it. The Precious Opal is so rare a stone that, with all our mining enterprise and geological research, we know of only two certain localities for it, namely, in Hungary and in Mexico, though some specimens are said to have been found in the province of Honduras and in the stormy Feroe Islands. The opal mines of Hungary, situated at Czernewitza, in the county of Saros, belong to the Crown, and are at present farmed by Herr Goldschmidt of Vienna, for 10,000 florins annually. About 150 workmen are employed, and as good stones occur but rarely, and are of a corresponding value, it may easily be imagined that, what with the constant fear of being robbed, and that of not being able to cover his expenses, poor Herr Goldschmidt is no less to be pitied than Governor Pitt while in possession of his diamond. The finest and largest opal in the world is in the Imperial Their relative beauty increases the value of opals so considerably that fine stones of a moderate bulk have, in modern times, been frequently sold at the price of diamonds of equal size. The so-called ‘Mountain of Light,’ an Hungarian opal in the Great Exhibition of 1851, weighed 526½ carats, and was estimated at 4,000l. The black opals, which allow the red fire of the ruby to flash out from the dark ground-colour of the stone, are also highly esteemed. Besides the commoner varieties of opal, such as semi-opal, opal jasper, wood opal, different kinds of quartz crystal, including amethyst, Cairngorm stone, and a long and beautiful array of jaspers and chalcedonies, such as agate, onyx, sard, plasma, and chrysoprase, may be placed in a list of stones of the second degree in point of value, if that value be estimated by rarity and price. The cutting, or grinding and polishing of most of these stones, which are commonly comprised under the name of agates, is chiefly carried on in the small towns of Oberstein and Idar, situated in the picturesque valley through which the rapid Idar flows into the Nahe, a tributary of the Rhine. The sterile soil yields but a scanty produce, but the neighbouring hills abound in chalcedonies, which afford the people an ample Some of the inhabitants of Idar who in 1827 had emigrated to Brazil discovered in their new home an inexhaustible supply of stones. Enormous masses of chalcedony were found scattered as boulders near the banks of some rivers or disseminated in the plains, and could be sent as ballast at a trifling expense across the ocean. Thus almost all the rough material that Oberstein needs comes at present from Brazil or even India, and only the rarer varieties of agate-jaspis are at present collected in the neighbourhood of Idar. In possession of the best materials, supplied by a number of localities, and comprising all imaginable varieties of chalcedony—carnelion, plasma, heliotrope, jaspis, rock-crystal, amethyst, topaz, lapis lazuli, malachite—and commanding a market which extends further and further over the globe, the prosperity of Oberstein and Idar steadily increases. One hundred and eighty-three water-mills (with 724 large grinding-stones), situated along the romantic Idar, give employment to about 3,000 workmen, and the value of the manufactured stones amounts to at least 220,000l. annually. No stones are so porous or so easily coloured by artificial means as the varieties of chalcedony. In ancient times the onyxes from the Nerbudda were ‘baked in ovens,’ and to this day, in the neighbourhood of Brooch, the nodules of onyx dug in the dry season from the beds of torrents are packed in earthen pots with dry goat’s-dung, which is set on fire. By this baking process the grey or dark green iron The art of baking and colouring is now fully understood in Oberstein. Some agates consist of impermeable white bands or layers alternating with others of a grey or dull colour, and of a porous nature. When placed in honey and exposed to a moderate heat for eight or ten days, the saccharine matter penetrates into the microscopical pores. Then the stones are boiled in sulphuric acid, which, carbonising the honey, imparts a deep black colour to the porous layers which it had permeated, and by thus setting-off the white layers to the best advantage, changes a previously almost worthless stone into a beautiful onyx or sardonyx. An Italian who came to Oberstein to buy rough agates for the cameo-cutters of Rome made the Germans acquainted with this method, which had long been practised by his countrymen. By other chemical processes, some of which are generally known, while others are kept a secret, rich yellow, or apple-green, or blue tints are imparted by the agate-dealers of Oberstein to the rough produce of nature. A description of all the varieties of quartz used for ornamental purposes would lead me too far; but a few words on rock-crystal may not be uninteresting. This beautiful mineral occurs in many varieties, such as the violet, rock-crystal, or amethyst, the most beautiful specimens of which are procured from India, Ceylon, and Persia; the false topaz when yellow, the morion when black, the smoky quartz when smoke-brown. The limpid and colourless kinds are often called Bristol or Irish diamonds, after the various localities in which they are found. Rock-crystal frequently occurs in the Alps, as is well known to every traveller in Switzerland. Small rock-crystals have hardly any value, but considerable prices are paid for very large specimens, which are accordingly much sought for by chamois-hunters and goatherds. About a century since a quartz cave was opened at Zinken, which afforded 1,000 cwt. of rock-crystal, and at that early period brought 300,000 dollars. One crystal weighed 800 pounds. In the August of the following year the Sulzers, accompanied by a few friends from Guttannen, to whom they had imparted the secret, made a more decisive attempt to force their way into the cave, by widening the entrance with gunpowder. To clamber and maintain one’s position on a nearly vertical rock on ledges only a few inches broad is at all times a matter of no small difficulty; but this difficulty is very much increased when at the same time the hammer and other implements for blasting are to be handled. The weather was also very bad, and every now and then a dreadful gust of wind threatened to hurl the hardy adventurers from the rock upon the glacier. Hail and rain stiffened their limbs; and thus they passed a miserable night closely huddled together on a narrow projection before the cavity. Wet to the skin, and their teeth chattering with cold, they resumed their labours on the following morning, and at length sufficiently widened the entrance to open a passage into a cave which was found to penetrate to a considerable depth into the mountain. The cave was filled nearly up to its roof with a mound consisting of pieces of granite and quartz mixed with chlorite sand; but here and there, imbedded in the rubbish, glistened the large planes of jet black morions which showed that their toil had not been fruitless. Originally the crystals had grown from the sides or the roof of the cave; and who can tell the ages that were required for their formation, or the mysterious circumstances that favoured their growth?—then at an equally unknown time the concussion of an earthquake, or maybe their own weight, had After the first explorers had collected about a ton, the whole able-bodied population of Guttannen, provided with hammers, spades, ropes, baskets, and trucks, came forth to carry away the remainder. As the report had spread that the Canton of Uri, on whose territory the cave was situated, intended to stop their proceedings, they worked night and day with feverish haste, and in the space of a week had entirely stripped it of its treasures, which were partly conveyed to the new Furca Road, and partly transported over the glaciers to the Grimsel. One of the party fell into a crevice with a crystal of a hundred pounds upon his back, but extricated himself, though he was obliged to abandon his prize. Thus when the authorities from Uri made their appearance on the spot nearly all the crystals had been removed out of their reach. Seven of the finest specimens, each rejoicing in an individual name, like the mammoth-trees of America, now form a magnificent group in the museum of Berne, to which they were sold for 8,000 francs. The ‘king,’ 32 inches high and 3 feet in circumference, weighs 255 pounds; the 'grandfather,’ though of inferior height, makes up for this deficiency by a superior girth, and weighs 276 pounds. Many other fine crystals were sold to various museums and private collections for six or seven francs per pound, so that Sulzer’s discovery will long be gratefully remembered in the annals of the poor village of Guttannen. |