3 16 DOMAIN IV. TALCOUS. 



nature with the white part of the soapy rock ;, 

 but whether it exudes from the crevices of the 

 rocks, several of which have little chinks (filled 

 with this heterogenous matter), capable of emit- 

 ting what they contain, or whether this sub- 

 stance is first washed off by the sea from those 

 veins, and is again returned by the force of the 

 waves, till it incrusts the rocks, time and further 

 inquiries only can determine."* 



" Most of the stones within reach of the sea 

 are covered with an adventitious and most beau- 

 tiful enamel ; red, white, green, yellow, in thin 

 lucid scales, sometimes riding on one another in 

 different crusts. In the eastern part of this 

 cove, as the Cornish people call it, or creek, the 

 substance of the rocks, and the sides of the cliff, 

 are more gritty, and being soft, crumbling, and 

 of a reddish colour, mixed with veins of white, 

 like marble ; and the purest, and most beautiful, 

 lying in veins like metals. It is here more par- 

 ticularly called the soapy rock; as, by its 

 unctuousness, smoothness, and variegations, it 

 greatly resembles the finest kind of soap. 



" The veins of steatites are of different 

 breadths; some run under the sea, some to near 

 the top of the cliff, and some through the cliff 



* Da Costa, 37- 



