3fs PLIXY'S NATURAL msxonr. [Book XX1XVI. 



CHAP. 44. STONE OF SITIINOS. SOFT STONES. 



At Siphnos, 13 there is a kind of stone 11 which is hollowed 

 and turned in the lathe, lor making cooking-utensils and ves- 

 sels for keeping provisions; a thing too, that, to iny own know- 

 ledge, 15 is done with the green, stone 16 of Comum 17 in Italy. 

 With reference, however, to the stone of Siphnos, it is a sin- 

 gular fact, that, when heated in oil, though naturally Tory soft, 

 it becomes hard and black ; so great a diiiercuco is there in 

 the qualities of stone. 



There ore some remarkable instances, too, beyond the Alps, of 

 the natural softness of some kinds of stone. In the province 

 of the BeJgae, there is a white stone 1 " which admits of being cut 

 with the saw that is used for wood, and with greater facility 

 even. This stone is used as a substitute for roof-tiles and 

 gutter-tiles, and even for the kind of roofing known as the 

 pavonaceous 19 style, if that is preferred. Such are the stones 

 that admit of being cut into thin slabs. 



C1IAP. 45. SPKCULAR STONKS. 



As to specular 20 stone for this, too, is ranked as one of the 

 stones it admits of being divided with still greater facility, 

 and can be split into leaves as thin as may bo desired. The 

 province of Nearer Spain used formerly to be -the only one 

 that furnished it not, indeed, the whole of that country, but 

 a district extending fur a hundred miles around the city of 

 Segobrica/* But at the present day, Cyprus, Cappadocia, and 

 Sicily, supply us with it; and, still more recently, it has been 

 discovered in Africa : they are all, however, looked upon as 

 inferior to the stone which comes from Spain. The sheets 



n See 13. iv. cc. 22, 23. 



14 Ajasson identifies it with Ollar stono, talc, or soap-stone, a hydrous 

 silicate of magm-sia, and nearly allied to the Ophites of Chapters 11 u*nd30. 



15 Hi being a native of that part of Italy. 



16 The Green Colubine Ollar stone, or soap-stone of Italv. 



17 SceB.iii. c. 21. 



** Identified by I5rotero with our Free-stone or grit-stone. 



19 So called from its resemblance to the spots on a peacock's tail. He 

 alludes, prohably, to the mode of roofing with tiles cut in the form of 

 scales, still much employed on the continent, and in Switzerland more 

 particularly. 



2y Or 4 ' Mirror-stone." Transparent Selc-nitc or gypsum ; a sulphate of 

 lime. S1 Now Stgorba, iu Valcntia. 



