274 &EPORT ON NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1886. 



A rich, dark-brown cut aragonite, from California, and the beautiful 

 green copper-colored Smithsonite (a zinc ore) from Lauriuin, Greece, 

 demand special notice. One is a cut cabochon 1 inch long and one-halt' 

 inch high, the other an ideal piece of the natural mineral. We observe, 

 also, a fine polished malachite, from Siberia, and a smaller breast-pin 

 piece ; also, a dish of the highly-prized dark blue, or, more accurately, 

 dark purple, fluorite from Derbyshire, England, where it is familiarly 

 known as u Blue John." Vases of this material have often been sold for 

 over $1,000. Two small polished pieces of the Persian lapis-lazuli, and 

 a slabs inches across, and one 4 inches, of the white- veined variety from 

 the Peruvian Andes, well represent this species. A jade pendant, 3 

 inches long and of good color, is one of the sort made in Germany to 

 sell in New Zealand, as genuine aboriginal workmanship. Also, a flat 

 vase made of a gray Chinese jade, and one of the small bracelets of the 

 same material, light-green in color, which are put on the arms of girls 

 in early childhood, and allowed to remain there, until the natural growth 

 of the arm fixes them so tightly, that they can not be removed over the 

 hand. To the jades have recently been added an Alaskan jade labret, 

 used by the Alaska Indians as a lip ornament, and a Chinese jade ink- 

 stone holder, mounted on a base of carved teak- wood. This is the most 

 elaborate jade in the collection; the body of a dragon forming a cell 

 for water, the mouth of the cell being a hole in the dragon's back. The 

 beast's fore-paws and head rest upon the edge of a rectangular trough, 

 which is intended to hold the ink-stone. From this he appears to be 

 drinking, while a smaller beast, whose head just appears above the edge 

 at the other end of the trough, watches his powerful enemy with a 

 stealthy, malicious fear. 



A rich dark-green flower, 6 inches by 3, chiseled out of serpentine, 

 is very pretty, as is a curious, fanciful, turtle-like talc ornament from 

 Southern India, the shell of which is beautifully carved into a net-work 

 of flowers, and a carved toilet-box of the same material, from the same 

 locality. Besides the serpentine flower, there is a handsome turned 

 vase, 8 inches high, grayish-green, crossed and recrossed with very 

 dark olive-green streaks, giving it a mottled appearance ; also a hand- 

 some, polished slab of Williamsite from Texas, Lancaster County, Penn., 

 6 by 10 inches, a small flower ornament from San Francisco, a paper- 

 weight and two massive specimens of green Serpentine, spotted with 

 red, from Cornwall, England, and a polished fancy specimen of Bowenite 

 from Rhode Island. Red, white, and mottled Agalmatolite (Chinese 

 figure-stone), from China, is interesting. There are three carved 

 specimens representing human beings, and another, much more elabo- 

 rate, representing a parting scene on the sea-shore. The remaining 

 specimen of Agalmatolite is a handsomely-carved tray, on which is 

 represented a typical oriental scene, with all its wealth of luxuriant 

 vegetation. This well-preserved specimen was brought from Japan to 

 Holland by the Dutch merchants in the sixteenth or seventeenth 



