578 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1893. 



that where it exudes from the ground in bubbles the petrifaction assumes a globu- 

 lar shape, as if the bul>bles of a spring, by a stroke of magic, had been arrested in 

 their play, and metamorphosed into marble. These stony bubbles, which form the 

 most curious specimens of this extraordinary quarry, frequently contain within them 

 portions of the earth through which the water has oozed. 



''The substance thus produced is brittle, transparent, and sometimes most richly 

 streaked with green, red, and copper-colored veins. It admits of being cut into 

 immense slabs, and takes a good polish. We did not remark that any plant except 

 rushes grew in the water. The shortest and best deiinitiou that can be given of the 

 ponds is that which Quintus Curtius gives of the Lake Ascanius, '• Aqua spoute 

 concrescens" (Lib., xi., c. 12). The present royal family of Persia, whose princes do 

 not spend large sums in the construction of public buildings, have not carried awav 

 much of the stone; but some immense slabs which were cut by Nadir Shah, and 

 now lie neglected amongst innumerable fragments, show the objects which he had 

 in view. So much is this stone looked upon as an article of luxury that none but 

 the king, his sons, and persons privileged by special firman are i)ermitted to exca- 

 vate; and such is the ascendancy of pride over avarice that the scheme of farmino- 

 it to the highest bidder does not seem to have ever come within the calculations of 

 its present possessors." 



The second accoimt, that of Curzoii,* is apparently the more accu- 

 rate, though he also refers to the stone as a '' petrifaction,'' and is 

 quite in error in stating that the springs in the Yellowstone Park have 

 deposited "gleaming blocks of snow-white marble." He says: 



"Near the eastern shore of the lake (Oroomiah), and at about 6 miles from the 

 village of Dehkliaregau, are the pits or springs from which is extracted the famous 

 semitransparent marble, sometimes called after the neighboring town of Maragha, 

 sometimes after Tabriz. A number of springs, clustered within an area of half a 

 mile in circumference, are constantly bubbling up and precipitating the limestone 

 which they hold in solution. This is deposited in the form of horizontal layers, 

 which are like a thin crust to start with, and ran be cracked or broken, but which 

 gradually solidify into hard blocks, with an average thickness of 7 or 8 inches, the 

 best of which are believed to have been formed when the springs had a much hioher 

 temperature than the present (65^ F.). When quarried this petrifaction can be 

 sawn either in the thinnest plates, when it is nearly transparent, and is sometimes 

 used for windows, or in more substantial slabs, in which form it is much used for 

 pavements and mural wainscotings. It is a singularly beautiful substance, being of 

 a pink or greenish or milk-white color, streaked with reddish or copper-colored veins 

 (from the oxide which it contains); and I have seen l)eautiful samples of it in the 

 palaces and mosques of the East. I have very little doubt that the wainscoting of 

 the Gur Amir, or Tomb of Timur, at Samarkand, which I have described in my 

 former work, and which has puzzled all travelers, is composed of this marble, 

 which there is nothing more natural than the great couquerer should have carried 

 home with him at the close of his Persian campaign. t The process of petrifaction 

 bears a marked resemblance to that which was in existence till the great eruption of 

 a few years ago at the i)ink and Avhite terraces in New Zealand, and to that which 

 may still be seen at the Mammoth Hot Springs in the Yellowstone Park, in North 

 America, where the induration may Tie observed through all its stages, from a tijm- 

 like frosted sugar to gleaming blocks of snow-white marble." 



The Tabriz stone seems to have formerly been quite extensively used 



*Curzon, G. N., Persia and the Persian Question, etc., Vol. 1, 1892, p. 264, et seq. 



1 1n footnote to above statement he says: "Since writing the above I have come 

 across the statement as a matter of fact that Timur took lack with him to Samar- 

 kand a large supply of the marble of Azerbaijar."' 



