NOME V. LAZULITE ROCK. gO, 



inestimable property of being unalterable. It is 

 to the ultramarine that we are indebted for those 

 rich tints, so much admired in the skies and 

 draperies of the first masters. 



" The Lapis is found in several countries, but Site, 

 in very small quantities; that which furnishes 

 the most is Great Bucharia; it is from thence 

 that it was brought to Russia, where it was so 

 profusely used to ornament the marble palace, 

 which Catherine the Second built at Petersburg, 

 for Orlof, her favourite. There are in this pa- 

 lace some apartments entirely lined with lapis. 

 It would be scarcely possible to imagine a deco- 

 ration more simple, and at the same time more 

 'magnificent. 



" I met with, at Ekaterinburg in Siberia, a 

 (dealer in stones, who had been at Bucharia: I 

 [inquired of him concerning the nature of the 

 imountains, whence the Lapis is brought*. He 

 informed me that it was found in granite ; that 

 t did not run in veins or streaks, but was disse- 

 ninated in the entire mass of the rock, in all 

 >orts of proportions ; that here only a few slight 

 3luish spots were perceivable upon a rock gene- 

 -ally grey; there the spots were closer, and of a 

 nore lively tinge: in fme a small masses were 



It is said to be found near Kalab and Budnesh, in Bucharia. P. 



