THE ONYX MARBLES. 553 



and it is interesting to note that, with tlie exception of the cave deposit, 

 all that have thus tar come under the writer's notice wliich are of such 

 color as to make them preeminently desirable for ornamental purposes, 

 occur in hot and arid countries and regions not far distant from recent 

 volcanic activity. This is as true of foreign as of American occurrences. 

 It is to be noted that all the deposits known are of slight geological 

 antiquity, belonging to late Tertiary and early Quarternary periods. If 

 materials of like nature were earlier deposited they would seem to have 

 so far lost their identity as to be no longer recognizable. Contrary to 

 the general belief, as indicated in the literature of the subject, or by 

 the labeling of samples in museums, the onyx marbles, as shown by 

 the investigations here chronicled, are almost without exception of cal- 

 cite and not aragonite. It is true that the basis for such a statement 

 is founded mainly upon specific gravities, the results of which may in 

 certain cases seemingly be open to doubt. While, however, it is possi- 

 ble that certain of these stones may be made up of finely alternating 

 bands of calcite and aragonite, there would seem no legitimate reason 

 for doubting the main mass of the material to be calcite, particularly 

 when microscopic examinations have borne out the results obtained by 

 gravity methods. 



USES, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 



As already noted, the onyx marbles were used in Egypt during very 

 early times for making small articles, as jugs, bowls, canopic vases, 

 and amphorai, employed to hold offerings to the gods, the ashes of 

 the dead, and for other religious and domestic purposes. We find 

 them thus utilized as early as the second dynasty. It is worthy of note 

 that few, if any, of these articles were polished, though many of them 

 show great skill in workmanshii^. In the Abbott collection of Egji^tian 

 antiquities of the New York Historical Society are several fine examples 

 of this nature, one of which is shown in pi. 9, fig. 2. 



According to the guide book to the fourth Egyptian room of the 

 British Museum (1892, p. 117) the vases, bowls, saucers, spoons, and 

 other vessels, which were placed in the tombs to hold the wine, oil, 

 honey, sweetmeats, perfumes, and cosmetics offered to the dead, were, 

 during the first six dynasties, commonly made from plain white "ala- 

 baster" (whatever that may be). Afterwards, variegated marbles and 

 stones were frequently employed, including aragonite, granite and 

 diorite, steatite and schist. Mr. G. F. Harris states* that the oynx 

 thus used during the earlier periods — the fifth and sixth dynasties — 

 was plain and of one uniform layer, but about the time of the twenty- 

 fifth dynasty a zoned variety of a yellow color came into use. This 

 authority further states that the principal shapes shown in the British 

 Museum are "hemispherical vases with wide open mouths, for holding 

 wines; basins, cylindrical vases, with wide rims for unguents or oils; 

 vases in the shape of wiue jugs, two-handled amphorjv, and drop-shaped 



" The Bnilder, London, vol. 61, 1891, p. 14. 



