DOMAIN IV. TALGOUS. 



STRUCTURE II. HARD STEATITE. 



Distinctions. $ o f t steatite may be scratched with the nail ; 

 but when the coherence is such that this substance 

 does not yield to the knife of copper, or even 

 sometimes of steel, it must assume the name of 

 hard steatite ; the hardness extending from the 

 gypsic to the marrnoric, and even to the basaltic. 

 It must here be premised that the little Chinese 

 idols, formerly supposed to be of indurated steat- 

 ite, are now known by chemical analysis to belong 

 entirely to the Argillaceous Domain; a proof,. 

 among many others, of the insufficiency of exter- 

 nal characters, and that mineralogy can derive no 

 certain light, except from the lamp of chemistry. 



Aspect 1. Compact. Hard steatite, approach- 

 ing to serpentine, of a dark green colour, with 

 chlorite, from Silesia. 



Of a pale green, with black lines, from the Alps 

 6f Dauphiny. 



The early writers sometimes confound the hard 

 steatite with ollite. 



Aspect 2. Laminar. The plates are com- 

 monly curvedj and occasionally have a fibrous 

 fracture. It is translucent on the edges, and 



