NOME III. CORSIL1TJE. 



79 



stone are to be seen in the Capella di S. Lorenzo, 

 at Florence." 



Saussure, who discovered pebbles of this rock 

 among those of the lake of Geneva (which in- 

 clude many curious substances brought by the 

 Rhone, and its confluent streams, often from 

 inaccessible parts of the Alps), and afterwards 

 found it in its native places, describes it as com- 

 posed of jad and a new substance which he calls 

 ( smaragdite, from smaragdus, the Latin name of 

 the emerald. He found it in the mountain of 

 Musinet, near Turin, which also presents the cu- 

 rious semiopals, called hydrophanes: and which 

 chiefly consists of serpentine, and other magne- 

 sian rocks. In another spot also, among mag- 

 nesian rocks, he found the same substance ; but 

 the smaragdite was of a grey colour*. In Cor- 

 sica it is found in detached masses, which en- 

 cumber the bed of the rivulet of the village of 

 Stazzona, and which came from the mountain of 

 Santo Piatro di Rostino, not far from Orezza. 

 Hence it has also been called Verde antico di 

 Orezza. It is also found in large detached 

 masses at Voltri, near Genoa ; and a similar rock 



found at Estendorf, in Stiria. The same com- 



Saussure's 

 remarks. 



Sites. 



* Sauss. 1313, 1362. See his account of smaragdite, 1313- 

 He observes, that oriental jad is very fusible. 



