BOMAIN IV. TALCOUS. 



t " I have found in the lead-mine yielding silver 

 of Kadainsk, in Daouria, near the river Amur, a 

 steatite of a very remarkable variety. Although 

 of a tolerable firmness, it is so unctuous, that in 

 drawing the finger along its surface, it gives it 

 the same gloss as it would to a piece of soap. 

 It is of a perfectly homogenous tissue, although 

 composed of very distinct alternate layers, from 

 half a line to a line in thickness, of which some 

 are of a beautiful milk white, and the others of 

 an ochre yellow. These layers, although con- 

 torted, are parallel among themselves ; and as it 

 generally presents segments of concentric cir- 

 cles, the stone has the appearance of petrified 

 wood. 



" I had brought away two specimens, and I 

 wished to wash one of them ; but it was scarcely 

 wet before it broke into little fragments, the size 

 of a pea, all the fractures of which were per- 

 fectly conchoidal, and the angles very sharp. 

 The mark of the layers has almost entirely dis- 

 appeared in these fragments, which have as- 

 sumed a uniform tint, between white and yellow. 

 The thinnest fragments are translucent on the 

 edges."* 



This stone must resemble the circular talc 

 described and figured by Wallerius. 



* Patrin Min. i. 1Q5. 



