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light coloured or wliite ; not unfrequently stalainitic markings may be 

 seen in a transparent base. 



It is a pity that our Agates, which have been so lavishly distributed 

 over the Dominion, beautiful in their natural colours, should be 

 ignored for the more spurious and gaudy articles imported, and palmed 

 off on tourists and others at the Lake Superior and Niagara resorts as 

 Canadian. These Agates come principally from Brazil and India, and, 

 according to some authors, may be recognized from the German by 

 being water worn, whereas the German are generally coated externally 

 with delissite. They are, however, all cut in Cxcrmany, and after being 

 polished are steeped in oil, and finally boiled in sulphuric acid, by 

 which process they are often converted from the pure white Fortifica- 

 tion Agate to the black Onyx with its white concentric rings. This is 

 caused by the oil entering the more porous portions of the stone and 

 then being carbonized by the sulphuric acid. 



Onyx. — This variety is found occasionally at the Agate localities 

 before mentioned, and differs only from that mineral by its colours 

 being arranged in parallel layers, which are either black, brown, red, 

 yellow, etc., striped so as to exhibit alternate colours, arranged like a 

 sandwich, it is then termed Sardonyx. However, rarely more than two 

 colours are seen in the iini^orted stones It is on this particular 

 mineral that some of the finest masterpieces of art are still preserved in 

 some of the European museums. A marvellously fine antique Sard- 

 oynx Cameo of five strata, representing the bust of Faustina, was said 

 to have been sold at the sale of the effects of the Marquis of Dree for 

 7,000 francs. 



We often hear from jewellers and others of the " Oriental Onyx.' 

 This name enhances its value considerably, and yet these are identical 

 with the German stones, and as there is every reason to suppose that 

 the same process coloured the stones from India as those from 

 Germany, their quality and translucency is identical, and more particu- 

 larly as no lapidary or jeweller can tell one from the other, why should 

 there be any difference? 



Some fine Onyx pebbles were brought from Q;.een Charlotte 

 Island, B.C., by the Marquis of Lome. They were of a pale yellowish 

 colour striped with white. But perhaps the finest specimens of this 



