6 MEMOIR ON EMERY. 



they had been first discovered through the agency of a knife- 

 grinder of the country, who had been in the habit of using it 

 to charge his wheels with. The importance of this circumstance 

 to the Turkish Government, as well as to the arts (emery being 

 at that time sold at a most exorbitant price), induced me to 

 return to Smyrna in the early part of 1847 for the purj^ose 

 of examining the supposed locality of this mineral. On this 

 second visit other localities were made known to me that an 

 English merchant by the name of Healy had succeeded in 

 bringing to light. 



The first locality toward which I directed my examination 

 was that of Gumuch-dagh, a mountain about twelve miles east 

 of the ruins of Ephesus. Before, however, arriving there I 

 discovered this mineral imbedded in a calcareous rock in a 

 valley twenty miles south of Smyrna, called Allahman-Bourgs. 

 The position not being very favorable for the study of the 

 geology of this substance, my route was continued to the 

 place originally fixed upon. Obtaining guides at the village 

 of Gumuch, I commenced the examination of the mountain, 

 which is composed of bluish marble resting on mica-slate and 

 gneiss. On the very summit of the mountain the emery was 

 found scattered about and projecting above the surface of the 

 soil. After examining the extent of the formation and satisfy- 

 ing myself that it was there in situ, I returned to Constantinople 

 and made a report to the Ottoman Government. Although I 

 gave no notice to the scientific world of the result of my exami- 

 nation, the editor of the Journal de Constantinople inserted a 

 small note in his journal, in May, 1847, to the following effect: 

 "It is some time s*ince M. Lawrence Smith, American min- 

 eralogist, discovered at Magnesia, near to Gumuch -Kuey, an 

 emery-mine, of which he brought specimens to Constantinople. 

 The government have sent to the place a commission composed 

 of Mr. Smith and some of the officers of the imperial powder- 

 works to examine thoroughly into the importance of this mine, 

 and according to the report that will be made the government 

 will decide on the steps to be taken with reference to it," etc. 



This circumstance, unimportant in itself, has subsequently 

 become of great value to secure to me the priority of the dis- 

 covery and examination of emery in situ in Asia Minor, and 

 also to show that I have been instrumental in the development 



