Natural History and Antiquarian Society. 15 



Chinese. It also occurred in New Zealand. In China Jade was 

 greatly prized : it was known as " the gem ; " and the Oriental 

 imagination had discovered in its properties symbols of all the 

 human virtues. It was sculptured into vases and other ornaments 

 of the most ai-tistic design and exquisite workmanship by Chinese 

 artificers ; in India the objects made of it were, after the manner of 

 the Hindoos, set with brilliants. Specimens of Chinese work- 

 manship in Jade were exhibited, kindly lent to Mr Starke by Mr 

 Dudgeon of Cargen. These included a vase of green Jade, with ring 

 ears, the whole sculptured from a solid block, and inscribed with 

 Chinese characters ; a mass of white Jade exquisitely carved, and 

 representing in relief pilgrims ascending from the foot of a hill to 

 a pagoda at its summit, and on the other side a forest scene ; a 

 piece of brown or tortoise-shell Jade, cut by a Chinese artist into 

 the form of a lotus leaf, with handles fashioned to the shape of 

 lizards ; and a seal of white Jade, richly studded with I'ubies and 

 emeralds set in gold, and having a blood-stone stamp. The vase 

 was a part of the loot of the French soldiery when the summer 

 palace of the Emperor of China was sacked in the war of 1860. 

 Mr Starke also exhibited a New Zealand celt made of native 

 green Jade, lent by Mr E. C. Maxwell, Terregles, who himself 

 brought it from that country. It formerly belonged to a famoiis 

 chief, who in the Maori War thrice cut down the British standard 

 with his own hand and defeated oui- troops. Mr Maxwell, in a 

 note, explained that Jade was foimd in only one portion of New 

 Zealand, that the natives travelled long distances to obtain it, 

 that the clubs or celts were formed from it by being rubbed with 

 sand ; and Mr Starke added that this one, which was large, flake- 

 shaped, and beautifully translucent, would probably have engaged 

 a man's whole life-time in the polishing of it, and might have been 

 handed down from generation to generation as a priceless posses- 

 sion in the family of the chief. In Scotland there was a mineral 

 to be found which had many of the properties of Jade, and could 

 not be distinguished from it even by expert mineralogists without 

 the aid of the microscope. This was Prehnite. Referring to 

 some letters in the Times regarding Jade celts recently found 

 among the lake-dwellings in Switzerland, Mr Starke remarked 

 that these must have been brought from Asia in far-off times. 

 The paper concluded with an interesting description of the Fauna 

 of that remote period. 



