98 Scientific Proceedings, Royal Dublin Society. 



recently ascertained by chemical examination — should have been 

 known to the Persians. The hardness and other characters are 

 correctly stated also by Mahomed. The locality of the principal 

 mines is stated to be the island of Saharan, which is sixty-two 

 farsanges in diameter, and lies forty farsanges behind the island of 

 Ceylon. The yakuts are found there in a high mountain. This 

 jumble is not easy to explain, the true locality being Ceylon itself, 

 which is noted for its high mountains, culminating in Adam's Peak. 



Another locality is also mentioned, Tara, near Cairo, where 

 mines were discovered a.d. 1270. 



A stone, called by Mahomed the chamahen, should come 

 here, if, as is stated, it is next to the diamond in hardness ; but 

 this is inconsistent with another assertion that, when rubbed on a 

 hard stone, it colours it red. When broken, it divides into 

 branches. The most beautiful is blackish-red ; it is found in the 

 district of Karak. But for the first statement I should be inclined 

 to identify this as jasper. 



Spinel (Laal). — Of this there are four classes, namely, the red, 

 yellow, violet, and green. Of the red there are eight varieties. 

 Mahomed only mentions one mine, that in Badakshan, the capital 

 of which, Balkh, gave origin to the term " Balas." His account, 

 which is as follows, was unfortunately not available to me when 

 giving a precis of information regarding the locality^ : — " At the 

 time of the caliphate of the Abbasides, a mountain at Chatlan 

 was rent open by an earthquake, where there was found the laal 

 of Badakshan, bedded in a white stone. It is very hard to polish, 

 and it was a long time before it could be smoothed, till it was at 

 length accomplished by means of the gold marcasite called 

 ehrendshe. Smaller stones are found in the bed round a large one, 

 like the seeds of a pomegranate. The miners call this bed of the 

 Spinel maal. There were found in the mines first red, then 

 yellow laal, and it belongs to the kinds of the yahutr The 

 discovery of these mines by a landslip finds a parallel in a recent 

 discovery of sapphires in the Himalayas.^ The white stone which 

 formed the matrix is probably limestone. Wood, in 1837, stated 

 that the matrix was a red sandstone or a limestone impregnated 

 with magnesia, but he did not personally visit the mine. 



1 Economic Geology, p. 430; 



2 Records of the General Surrey of India, vol, xv., 1882, p. 138. 



