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in the house. It is as white and transparent as the 

 best glasS) and is frequently found in plates of a 

 foot long ; and I am convinced if a little care was 

 used in digging it, they might be procured of dou- 

 ble that size. There is a second kind, found in very 

 large plates, which I have called mica variegata. It is 

 spotted with yellow, red and blue, but as it cannot 

 be applied to the uses of the first, it is of course held 

 in much less estimation. 



Those of the calcarious kind are limestones, 

 marbles, calcarious spars and gypsums. Of the 

 limestones, there are those that are very compact 

 and of all colours, the shining red, the coarse white^ 

 the blue and the grey. 



The plain marbles, or those of but one colour, 

 hitherto discovered in Chiii, are the white statuary 

 marble, the black, the green, the yellow and the 

 grey. Two mountains, one in the Cordilleras of 

 Copiapo, and the other in the marshes of Maule, 

 consist wholly of a marble striped with bands of 

 various colours which have a very beautiful appear- 

 ance. The variegated marbles are the ash- colon red 

 with veins of v/hiie, yellow and blue ; the green 

 speckled with black ; and the yellow with irregular 

 spots of green, black and grey. This last is found 

 at St. Fernando, the capital of Calchagua ; it is in 

 high estimation, is easily wrought, and becomes 

 harder from exposure to the air. The Chilian mar- 

 bles are generally of an excellent quality, and take a 

 fine polish. Several who have examined the inte- 

 rior Andes, have informed me that those mountains 



