352 THE DIAMOND AND OTHER PRECIOUS STONES. 



known of all the countries of the globe. Merchants in rul)ies will never 

 cease expatiation on the number of tigers, lions, elejihants, and venom- 

 ous serpents which people the forests ancV the plains of this country, 

 which, according to them, is only accessible by the openings of the 

 rivers from the sea. The actual state of the island of Borneo, as authen- 

 tically given, seems very much to confirm these rather interested ac- 

 counts. 1 do not know that the rajahs attach a superstitious importance 

 to the i^ossessiou of rubies, but it is certain that they never sell any of 

 considerable weight. With the Koh-i-noor, Iluujeet Singh possessed a 

 no less precious ruby, Avhich was of the shape of the large end of an egg 

 that had been cut in two. This enormous gem made a part of the neck- 

 lace of this prince, and was estimated b}' him, without any fear of finding 

 a purchaser, at 12,500,000 iiounds sterling — about as much as 300,000,000 

 franc*. We know nothing of the quality or weight of this ruby, which 

 has not yet been brought to England. The ruby is, with the sapphire, 

 the zircon, and the garnet, one of the heaviest of stones. In wat«r it 

 loses only about the fourth of its weight. 



The Indian princes set their beautiful rubies in the collet of a ring, 

 somewhat elevated, and surround them by several rows of small dia- 

 monds, so that the whole produces a kind of disproportionate elevation, 

 contrary to our ideas of good taste, which admits but a single stone in 

 a simple French setting, the stone not too prominent — for example, in 

 diamonds, a solitaire of three or four carats. 



The composition of rubies is no less extraordinary than that of the 

 diamond. Like the sapphire, the ruby is nothing more than a bit of 

 crystallized earth, colored by iron, which naturalists call the painter of 

 nature. It is not too much to repeat the strange assertion, that nature has 

 made the most precious stones with the most common materials, w^e vvill 

 say that this kind of earth, called aluminium or clay, and the white pebble 

 or rock-crystal, called silica, or flint, form the base of nearly all gems. Opal 

 is rock-crystal with water. Topaz joins a little fluoric acid to silex and 

 aluminium. The emerald, the crysolite, the aqua-marine, the tournmlinc, 

 and the eulase contain another element besides silex and aluminium, viz : 

 glucine. Finally, garnet is so ferruginous that it acts on the magnetic 

 needle. The zircon, a stone very little esteemed in France, has for base 

 a peculiar kind of earth called zircone. 



As accessory to the ruby, Ave may mention a stone less deeply red in 

 color, called the spindle ruby. The crystalline form of this difiers from 

 that of the oriental ruby, which is a six-sided cylinder, cut squarely at 

 both ends; while the spinelle is, like the diamond, a double pyramid. 

 The name of halass ruby has been given to a stone of Magal, which 

 several authors regard as a real oriental rub}', only having a less rich 

 color. The ancients did not apply the name ruby to this stone. It is 

 called by Pliny carbuncule, (incandescent coal,) and by Ovid and the 

 jioeti^ jjyrope, or that which has the color of fire — 



Flammas imitanie pyropa. 



