Q0 DOMAIN IX. ANOMALOUS. 



found oi' an almost entire blue; but that it was 

 extremely rare to discover pieces as large as one's 

 head, in which the blue should generally predo- 

 minate over the white and the grey. As those 

 blocks, which I had seen, appeared to me rolled, 

 I asked if they had been found in the beds of 

 rivers; and was informed they were taken from 

 the quarry, and that they were rounded by their 

 friction against each other in the carriage ; but 

 that sometimes, however, they were found by 

 chance in torrents, and these were of the most 

 brilliant blue. 



" Laxmann, an academician of Petersburg, 

 who resided several years in Eastern Siberia, said 

 he found rolled blocks of lapis upon the shore of the 

 lake Baikal, in a kind of gulf, to the southward, 

 called Koultouk ; but that he in vain sought for 

 the mountain from which these blocks had been 

 detached, and that he could get no information 

 from the Buret Tartars, who inhabit this savage 

 country. I have a specimen of this lapis, which 

 is exactly similar to that of Bucharia. 



" Boetius de Boot has given a long account of 

 the manner of preparing ultramarine. This 

 operation consists chiefly in the repeated calci- 

 nation of the lapis, and plunging it in vinegar : 

 he adds, that the oftener these calcinations are 

 repeated, the finer the colour. That of the first 



