22 MEMOIR ON EMERY. 



excavate, the spots are sounded by an iron rod with a steel 

 point; and when any resistance is met with the rod is rubbed 

 in contact with the resisting body, and the effect produced on 

 the point enables a practiced eye to decide whether it has been 

 done by emery or not. 



The blocks which are of a convenient size are transported 

 in their natural state, but most frequently they are required 

 to be broken by means of large hammers. When they resist 

 the hammer they are subjected to the action of fire for several 

 hours, and on cooling they most commonly yield to blows. It, 

 however, happens sometimes that large masses are abandoned 

 from the impossibility of breaking them into pieces of a con- 

 venient size, as the transportation either on camels or horses 

 requires that the pieces do not exceed one hundred pounds. 



At Kulah the quantity of emery detached from the rock was 

 not very considerable, as it had been protected from decompo- 

 sition by the beds of lava that cover it. Here the marble was 

 quarried to get at the emery, which was done in the early part 

 of 1847 with profit, although the transportation from Kulah to 

 Smyrna is over a distance of one hundred and ten miles on the 

 backs of camels. Since the diminution of the price of emery 

 this mine has been abandoned; for the quarrying into the 

 marble is attended with the greatest difficulty, as the tools used 

 for boring, etc., are thrown out of use in a very short time by 

 the pieces of emery which are encountered at every instant. 

 At present all the emery sent from Asia Minor comes from 

 the mine at Grumuch-dagh, twelve miles from the ruins of 

 Ephesus. 



COMMERCIAL CONSIDERATION OF EMERY. 



The use of emery in the arts is of very ancient date, a fact 

 proved by works on hard stones that could not have been exe- 

 cuted except by emery or minerals of that nature. It is very 

 probable that emery coming from the localities which have 

 been mentioned was used in former ages by the Greeks and 

 Romans. For example, the locality of Gumuch-dagh is imme- 

 diately by the ancient Magnesia on the Miandre, and between 

 Ephesus and Tralles, twelve miles from each of these cities and 

 the same distance from Tyria. In all of these cities the arts 

 nourished, and none more than that of cutting hard stones, 



