8 MEMOIR ON EMERY. 



blocks are filled with an earth highly charged with oxide 

 of iron. In some places the masses are consolidated by car- 

 bonate of lime of infiltration, which must not be confounded 

 with the emery in its original gangue (the marble), in which 

 it is found in nodules sometimes round and at other times 

 fissured so as to represent angular fragments. In no place 

 does it present any thing like a vein, nor has it signs of strati- 

 fication. The largest mass at this locality that I saw unbroken 

 must weigh from thirty to forty tons. 



Attached to this mineral, more especially in the fissures and 

 on the surface, are several minerals that will be alluded to 

 hereafter. 



Kulah. — This locality of emery is the second in importance 

 in Asia Minor. It is a town situated about a hundred and fifty 

 miles from Gumuch and twenty miles from the ancient city 

 of Philadelphia (one of the seven churches). It is near the 

 river Hermes, and on that interesting volcanic district of Asia 

 called Catacecaumene, or the burnt country, resembling in 

 many respects the volcanic region of Auvergne. The rocks 

 forming the base of this region are of the older metamorphic 

 series, covered to a greater or less depth by lava of different 

 volcanic periods, which has flowed from the numerous craters 

 that form the prominent feature of this region. The most 

 common rocks in the mountain ranges about Kulah are white 

 granular limestone, mica-slate, hornblende-schist, gneiss, and 

 granite; the last four are seen more conspicuously in the 

 mountain two or three miles to the south, which have not 

 been subjected to volcanic action; the limestone overlies these 

 rocks. 



Before arriving at the place where I examined the emery 

 (about two miles to the northeast of Kulah), an outcropping 

 of gneiss was seen and subjected to the closest scrutiny without 

 discovering the slightest trace of corundum; and I will here 

 remark that although I have found several thin layers of mica- 

 schist engaged in the marble, in no instance was there any 

 trace of corundum in it. 



The marble in this region is very compact, of great hard- 

 ness, and I may also add of great purity. I can not say 

 whether this hardness is traceable to a greater depth than that 

 to which it has felt the influence of the superimposed lava. 



