rcEYIEWS. 
153 
out ? The beryl, with sky-blue and green emeralds, is found too in the 
Cordillera of Cubellan. It is often said that Peru is rich in emeralds, but 
Mr. BoUaert says that this should rather be said of Equador, as he has never 
known that gem to have been found in the former country. As the eleventh 
Inca, who died about a.d. 1475, commenced inroads on Quito, his son 
Huagna Capac conquering the country, Mr. Bollaert thinks this was the 
period at which the Peruvians became acquainted with the emerald. Paris- 
ite, a brownish-yellow crystal, composed of carbonate of lanthanium and 
didymium, with fluoride of calcium, is also found in the emerald-mines of 
Muzo. 
We know nothing as to the process the natives of Quito or Peru have for 
cutting, boring, or polishing precious stones ; they may have had hardened 
copper or brass instruments, and something approaching the drill, for the 
regal emerald had holes drilled through it to keep it fast on the head. 
Wallace, in his ' Travels on the Amazon ' (1853, p. 278), in his account of 
the Uaupes Indians, speaks of seeing " several men with the most peculiar 
and valued ornament — a cylindrical, opaque, white stone, which is quartz 
imperfectly crystaUized. These stones are from four to eight inches long, 
and about an inch in diameter. They arc ground round, and flat at the 
ends, — a work of great labour, — and are each pierced with a hole at one 
end, through which a string is placed to suspend it round the neck. It 
appears almost incredible that they should make this hole in so hard a sub- 
stance without any iron instrument for the purpose. What they are said 
to use is the pointed flexible leaf-shoot of the large wild plaintain, tri- 
turating (twirling M'ith the hands) with fine sand and a little water ; and 
thus no doubt it is, as it is said to be, a labour of years. Yet it must take 
a much longer time to pierce that which the Tushua (chief) wears as the 
symbol of his authority, for it is generally of the largest size, and is worn 
transversely across the breast, for which purpose the hole is bored length- 
ways from one end to the other, an operation which it is said sometimes 
occupies two lives. The stones themselves are procured from a great 
distance up the river, probably from near its source at the base of the 
Andes ; they are therefore highly valued, and it is seldom the owners can 
be induced to part with them, the chiefs scarcely ever." 
In Wilkes's ' American Exploring Expedition,' it is stated that, " on 
Bowditch Island, in the Pacific, the hand-drill is used, pointed with hard 
stone, for drilling shells." "Could such an adaptation," Mr. Bollaert asks, 
*' have been employed by the emerald-drillers of Mexico, Bogota, and 
Quito?" 
When Mr. Bollaert gossips about the Incas and the old Peruvians, 
it is hard not to digress, the subject is so enchanting ; but we draw 
the bonds of our speciality closer and resolutely resist. And that we may 
not be allured, we bridge over this part with a string of the Captain Cuttle 
sort of extracts. 
" There was some quill ay or iron-ore particularly at Cuancha; but it 
was not smelted by the Indians, that being too serious an operation for 
them. Gold and silver were merelj' melted, but the chloride and sulphuret 
of silver, by the aid of fire and air, could be reduced by them." 
" In vol. i. ' Mcrcurio Peruano,' p. 201, a.d. 1791, the following mines 
are mentioned as having been worked by the Incas : — Escamera, Chilleo, 
and Abatantis, of gold ; Choquinina and Porco, of silver ; Curahato, of 
copper ; Carabuco, of lead (probably the vicinity of Oruro yielded tin) ; 
and the magnificent iron-works (!) of Ancoriames, on the east margin of 
Lake Titicaca, are particularized." 
" Cope, a mineral pitch, is found near Point S. Elena, and Amotape, 
TOL. V. X 
