1992+ letter from Areticus. 184 
ARCTIC NEWS. 
Continued from p. £50. 
The Siberian ruby. 
Prorresson Heaman, a German employed by government 
in the mineral department of Siberia, has lately discover- 
ed in that country a most curious and beautiful species of ru- 
by-coloured fhorl, which from its great hardnefs takes a fine 
polifh, and is named, with some appearance of truth, the 
Sibertan ruby, It is certainly valuable and unique ; more 
especially as the smal] quantity found by the profefsor is 
all already disposed of for rings, earings, g’c. and no more 
as yet discovered after much diligence. It is supposed by 
him to have been pent up in the fifsure of a granite roek, 
decomposed by time, and forming the bed where he found 
it, a mafs of felt, spath, quartz, mica, dc. all reduced to 
sand or gravel, the ordinary component parts of that spe- 
cies of rock, which he supposed to have once stood there, 
This ingenious supposition was supported by several argu- 
ments which we have no room for, and by the nature of 
this ridge of mountains running in the line where this ruby 
fhorllay. I take no notice here of the singular crysta- 
lization and configuration of this gem; as the intention of 
these fhort notices is rather to raise than satisfy curiosity, 
and to call the attention of mineralogic dillettanti to the 
curious productions of the European Peru, which Siberia cer- 
tainly is insome measure; and might become so in a great 
degree was that interesting fertile country properly peopled, 
and sufficiently explored and cultivated, which cannot be 
done without a much greater proportion of inhabitants. 
Nothing can be more interesting to the philosophic na-' 
turalist, than the changes that curious part of the globe has 
