106 Dr. Mac Culloch's Sketch of the 



Carrara Is almost the only one which is at present held in estima- 

 tion, or is now accessible to modern sculptors. This marble is of a 

 very line grain and compact texture ; it is also susceptible of a 

 high polish when required, and is consequently applicable to 

 every species of sculpture, except when, as is too often the case, 

 dark veins intrude and spoil the beauty of the work. Notwith- 

 standing the general apparent uniformity of its texture, it offers 

 different varieties of aspect. It is always of a fine granular frac- 

 ture, yet this fracture is sometimes combined with a slight ten- 

 dency to the flat splintery, in which case the stone is harder and 

 more translucent than when It is purely granular. When merely 

 granular it is sometimes dry and crumbly, precisely as if it had 

 been exposed to a high heat ; it then loses much of Its transpa- 

 rency, and Is called ivoolly by sculptors. Its transparency is va- 

 rious, and in some cases nearly equal to that of alabaster, (granular 

 gypsum.) 



The bust of Marcellus in the Museum offers an example of a 

 verv fine grained and extremely translucent marble, apparently of 

 this kind. The specimen employed in the bust of Messalina is 

 equally remarkable for the fineness and beauty of its texture. In 

 a bust of a youthful Hercules in the same collection the Identity 

 of the marble is marked by the dark veins which are to be seen in 

 it ; but it Is imnecessary to quote individual specimens, as the 

 greatest number of the sculptures in this collection appear to have 

 been executed in Carrara marble. 



The last of the antlent marbles which I shall describe Is that of 



•Pentellcus, of which the quarries are probably still to be found in 



the vicinity of Athens, although they have not been investigated 



by modern travellers. But we are in possession of numerous 



specimens of sculpture In this stone, from w^hich w^e are able to 



