54 DOMAIN VII. COMPOSITE* 



of Queen Christina. The space where it is 

 found is about 2000 fathoms in length, but its 

 breadth is inconsiderable. They make of it 

 tombstones, slabs for tables, vases for butter, 

 salt cellars, and mortars ; and the sale of these 

 different articles amounts annually to about 

 20,000 francs. There are magazines of it at 

 Stockholm, at Gottenburg, at Carlskrona, and at 

 Abo. The manufactory employs about twenty 

 workmen, who receive each two livres ten sous 

 (about two shillings) daily; and its position is 

 fine and well adapted for working, as it is near 

 the Baltic sea. 



" The marble-quarry of Gillebeck, in Nor- 

 way, is seven leagues distant from Christiana ; 

 but as the marble which it furnishes is saturated 

 with a great quantity of pyrites, it generally be- 

 comes decomposed in a few years. The great 

 church of Frederick, at Copenhagen, which is 

 unfinished, is built with this marble. I have 

 often seen some prett}^ tablets of it, which con- 

 tained garnets, and a green substance called ac- 

 tinote." 



The Tirey marble seldom takes a fine polish. 

 Perhaps by a mill, or a steam-engine, and high 

 friction with putty, this defect might be reme- 

 died. But granite itself seldom admits a perfect 

 polish, owing, as in the Tirey marble, to the 



