

MODE I. MARBLE. 413 



marbles ate, the grey, with white, yellow, and 

 blue veins ; green, speckled with black ; and yel- 

 low, with black, brown, and green irregular spots. 

 This last, the quarry of which is at San-Fernando, 

 the capital of the province of Colchagua, is in 

 great esteem, because it is easily wrought, and 

 hardens in the air. All the marbles of Chili are 

 generally of a good quality, and all take a good 

 polish. Persons who have had occasion to ex- 

 amine the lower Andes, have assured me that 

 those mountains abound in marbles of different 

 qualities, and nearly of all colours ; but the ac- 

 counts I have received are too superficial to en- 

 able me to give exact descriptions of them. In 

 the plains near the city of Coquimbo, a white shell 

 marble has been found, somewhat granular, three 

 or four feet under the vegetable earth. The shells 

 in this marble are more or less entire, and give it 

 all the appearance of a real lumachdla. The bed 

 of this marble extends in length and breadth more 

 than three miles ; its thickness, generally about 

 two feet, varies, and depends on the number of 

 the beds, which are sometimes five, sometimes 

 eight. These beds are almost always divided by 

 very thin layers of sand. This stone increases in 

 hardness in proportion to its depth. The first 

 beds only present a coarse friable stone, of no use 

 but to make lime: the following, although com- 



