THE ONYX MARBLES. 575 



Altliougli not described in the published accounts, it is evident that a 

 process of oxidation has gone on in certain hiyers of the Algerian stone, 

 as in that of Arizona, for such material is found in the shape of turned 

 columns and stands for statues and other ornaments in the art and.fur- 

 nishing- shops. The colors are ([uiet ocher and mahogany brown, 

 clouded and veined, and though not as translucent and highly lus- 

 trous as objects of the uuoxidized stone, such are by no means lacking 

 in beauty. The dealers, in their ignorance of the nature of the mate- 

 rials they handle, will abuost invariably assure a customer that such 

 are not of onyx, but "marble," even though as the writer has shown 

 them, there may still be veins or layers of unoxidized material running 

 through them. 



Ef/i/pt.—Vnhka the onyx of Algeria, that of Egypt, at least so far as 

 the better known locality is concerned, is stalagmitic, that is to say, a 

 cave deposit. 



According to various authorities* there are two known sources of 

 stone, the first near Beui-Souef, some 25 leagues south of Cairo, and 

 the other at Syout, farther to the south, but also in the Nile Valley. 

 The writer is informed by Dr. Ernest Sickenberger, of Cairo, that the 

 stone of the first-named locality is found in cavities and clefts in 

 Eocene limestone at Gebel Oorakera ( Wady Sanoor) east of Beni-Souef, 

 and in smaller amounts east of Assioot. That used in the mosque of 

 Mehemet Ali, as already noted, was taken from the Gebel Oorakam 

 quarries, as was also the material for the beautiful monolithic columns of 

 the Church of S. Paolo fuori le Murs, at Kome. Samples of this stone 

 kindlysentto Washington by Dr. Sickenberger were of a nearly white 

 or only faint straw color, of a granular texture, and in no way remark- 

 able for their beauty, bat such as might be duplicated by the hundreds 

 of tons from the broken-down caves in the Silurio-Cambrian limestones 

 of the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Miueralogically the stone is 

 calclte and carries only a trace of organic matter in the way of impuri- 

 ties. According to Delesse this deposit was worked by the Egyptians 

 at a very early date, and later by the Ronums. As, however, published 

 accounts speak of the stone only as "Egyptian alabaster," we have in 

 most cases no means of ascertaining the exact locality from whence it 

 was derived. The Syout stone differs from that of Beui-Souef in hav- 

 ing a micro-radiating instead of granular structure, and in being of a 

 light yellowish or straw color. It is translucent and close in texture, 

 and has a beautifully mellow and pleasing tint either when carved or 

 polished. The date at which these latter deposits were first opened 

 can not be ascertained from available literature. Delesse states, and 

 after him Chateau, t that they were discovered by Selim Pacha, to 



*See Delesse, Materiaux tie ConstructioQ de L'Exposition Uuiveiselle de 1855; 

 Zittel, in Baedeker's Guide to Lower Egypt; Sir J. W. Dawson's Notes on Useful 

 and Ornamental Stones in Ancient Egypt. 



t Op at. 



