GARNET. 



Albumen, 

 Mucilage, 



Fibrous matter, 

 AVater. 



GARNET, in mineralogy, is a species 

 fcfthe flint genus, of which there are two 

 sub-species, viz. the precious, and com- 

 mon garnet. The precious, or Oriental, 

 garnet is red, but of various shades ; it 

 occurs seldom massive, more often dis- 

 seminated, and in original roundish grains 

 and small pieces. It occurs most com- 

 monly crystallized, either as a dodecae- 

 dron, or as a double eight-sided pyramid. 

 Its specific gravity is about 4.3, and it 

 consists of 



Silica . . . 

 Alumina . . 

 Oxide of Iron 

 Manganese 



Loss 



100 



Before the blow-pipe it melts into a black 

 enamel. 



The common garnet is brown or green, 

 is not so heavy as the precious, and is 

 composed of 



Silica 26.46 



Alumina .... 22.70 



Lime 17.91 



Iron . 1625 



Loss . 



83.32 

 16.68 



. i .. i.i. . > 



100 



It is more easily melted than the precious 

 garnet. 



" The garnet varies more than any 

 other gem, both in the form of its crys- 

 tals, and in its colour; some being of a 

 deep red, some yellowish, or of a purple 

 tint, and others brown, blackish, and 

 quite opaque. They are generally of a 

 spherical form, and never crystallize with 

 less Ulan twelve sides. The prevailing 

 colour is a fine red, and the mean size 

 that of a large pea, though they are 

 found from the size of a grain of sand to 

 three or four inches in diameter. Those 

 imbedded in granite are in general of the 

 smallest srze, but at the same time the 



most transparent. Among the garnets^ 

 which are called Oriental may be distin- 

 guished three different shades, known in 

 commerce by as many different names. 

 The garnet of a fine red colour, and free 

 from any mixture, is called a curbuncle. 

 Garnets are found in almost every country 

 where primitive rocks exist. Switzerland 

 and Bohemia are the two countries in Eu- 

 rope which furnish them in the greatest 

 abundance. Those of Bohemia have a 

 tint of orange mixed with the red, from 

 whence some have given them the name 

 of rubies. These stones are likewise 

 fouud in Hungary, at Pyrna in Silesia, in 

 Spain, and in Norway. At Bareith, a 

 town in Germany, garnets are found in 

 little irregular masses of a fine red co- 

 lour, and abundantly disseminated in a 

 green semi-transparent stone called ser- 

 pentine. As they are susceptible of a fine 

 polish, the inhabitants form them into se- 

 veral pretty trinkets and other articles of 

 jewelry. Black garnets are met with in 

 different situations. Ramond, professor of 

 natural history at Tarbes, collected some 

 from a mountain of the Pyrenees in the 

 neighbourhood of Barege ; Rome de PFsle 

 found them in the diamond mines of Bra- 

 zil ; and Brongniart tells us that they have 

 been discovered in a volcanic rock near 

 Vesuvius, and in the basaltes of Bohemia, 

 When garnets are perfectly transparent, 

 and hard enough to bear a fine polish, the 

 lapidaries cut them into facits, to be em- 

 ployed as jewels. In Bohemia there are 

 places where they work the garnets 

 which are found in the neighbourhood. 

 There are workshops also at Friburg, in 

 Brisgaw, for the garnets which are col- 

 lected from several of the Swiss moun- 

 tains. The impure garnets are used to 

 advantage as a flux, when they are found 

 near iron-mines, as they not only facilitate 

 the fusion of that metal, but add some- 

 thing to the mass, by contributing the por- 

 tion of iron which generally enters into 

 their composition. The quantity indeed 

 is sometimes so great, that they have 

 been said to yield 40/6. in the cwt. and 

 consequently worth smelting alone for 

 the sake of their produce." See Wood's 

 " Zoography," to which we Have been 

 indebted in the articles COAB and Fi- 

 cus. 



GARNET, in a ship, is a tackle having 

 a pendant coming down from the main- 

 mast, with a block well seized to the 

 main stay, just over the hatch-way, to 

 which a guy is fixed to keep it steady j 

 and at the other end is a long tackfe- 



