Chapman. — On the WorJcing of Greenstone. 627 



appears to me evident, however, that the piece of perforated 

 wood is by no means always used ; hence the clumsiness of 

 many holes. 



Colours. 



An examination of the colours of greenstone with reference 

 to their names and qualities, in which I desire to acknowledge 

 the invaluable assistance of Professor Scott, of the Otago 

 University, shows that with many shades they are mainly 

 grass-green (grasgriin of Eadde's Internationale Farben- 

 Scala), or green-grey or pea-green (blaugriin-grau, Eadde). 

 Exceptional pieces are found to be shades of vermilion-grey 

 (zinnober-grau, Eadde). In each of these three colours or 

 combinations I find that between my own collection and that 

 of Mr. White the extreme points of the gamut of twenty 

 shades are reached. In the grass-greens and pea-greens the 

 foot of the gamut is a creamy piece with a faint-green tinge, 

 while the head of the gamut is difficult to distinguish from black. 

 In the vermilion-grey, or brown, the same thing occurs — ■ 

 namely, the foot of the gamut is a beautiful cream-colour faintly 

 tinged with chocolate, while the head is so dark that its colour 

 would scarcely be made out but for the assistance of lighter 

 pieces occurring in places. In the case of certain of the 

 green colours transparency considerably modifies the apparent 

 colour, while numerous pieces of stone vary so much over their 

 surface that the standard colour must be differently expressed 

 for each square half-inch. In the appended scale I have 

 endeavoured to express, in terms of Eadde's standard, the 

 colours of typical pieces of the most marked varieties, but, not 

 being in a position first to submit my specimens to a first-class 

 Maori expert, I cannot profess to present the tables as free 

 from error. Eadde's classification of colours is based upon 

 twenty-two cardinal colours, with twenty intermediate colours, 

 making forty-two gamuts or scales, which are expressed on 

 cards. Each gamut exhibits twenty tints, produced by modi- 

 fying the colour by lightening it or making it darker ; so that 

 each gamut runs up from nearly white, showing a trace of the 

 colour, to nearly black, still showing a trace of the colour. 

 They are shaded from dark at the head to light at the foot, 

 and these shades are distinguished, in the annexed table 

 describing the various objects, by letters from a to v. 



