350 DOMAIN IV. TALCOUS. 



professor of mineralogy in the University of 

 Edinburgh, who repeatedly visited the Western 

 Isles of Scotland, is said to have asserted, that 

 the little isle of Bernera, which terminates the 

 exterior chain of the Hebudes, is composed of 

 amianthus, or, as he more probably intended, a 

 mixture of asbestos and amianthus. Lord Sea- 

 forth, the excellent proprietor of these remote 

 regions, and himself a mineralogist, when con- 

 sulted by the author, answered, that so singular 

 a circumstance was unknown to him, though it 

 could scarcely have escaped his information. 

 The finest amianthus occurs in Corsica, forming 

 beautiful white silky threads, of two feet or more 

 in length ; and it is so abundant, that Dolomieu 

 used it instead of flax to pack his minerals. 

 There is also a mountain in the Uralian chain 

 which is called the Silky Mountain, as in the fis- 

 sures of a Saussurite or magnesian basaltin there 

 is found an amianthus, which at first appears 

 compact and hard, but when exposed to the air 

 for some months, it swells, and becomes a fine 

 down, as flexible as cotton*. But even this can 

 scarcely be said to form a constituent part of 

 the mountain, and amianthus on a smaller scale 

 is frequent in rocks of this description -, so that 



* Patrin, i. 216. 



