12 MR. J. T. HotBLACK ON STONES ON MtfNDEsLEY BEACH, 
might have been exposed to the action of the sun) to a lapidary 
and ask him to have your crest, or even your initials, engraved on 
it, I fancy he would not be long in telling you that it was not 
suitable for the purpose. 
Streeter says : “ In cutting a cameo from carnelian the snow- 
white layers should be made use of for the figure, the red for the 
base, and should it have a third layer it would serve for the hair 
in the figure of the cameo.” 
He might have added, and, if yet another layer, perhaps for the 
cap ; but the stone with layers, as he describes, would not be 
properly called carnelian, it would, I should say, be either sardonyx 
or agate, according to the number of layers ; it is only the chalcedony 
without layers that is properly called carnelian. 
The same writer says : “ Carnelian was probably chosen by the 
Greeks and Romans for cameos in consequence of its possessing 
a beautiful colour and a certain hardness, we shall mention only 
a few of the many famous specimens. The oldest Greek gems 
known are in the collection of the Emperor of Germany ; one 
of them is a cameo on which is represented a winged Jupiter 
appearing to Semele, and the other an opaque sardonyx, on which 
is engraved a draped figure of Venus. There is a carnelian of the 
earliest period in the St. Petersburg collection, on which a man’s 
head is engraved with most artistically-arranged beard. The 
British Museum possesses an example of the second period, viz., 
a carnelian butterfly carrying a representation of Venus, of very fine 
workmanship, the dress of the Goddess hangs in rich and graceful 
folds. A carnelian of the third period is in the Royal Collection 
of Vienna, and represents Helena.” Of course, there are very 
many other fine specimens, the value of stone cameos being well 
known to all collectors of articles of virtu. 
No, my little girl is right, flints are not carnelians ; but these 
carnelians and agates found so plentifully upon the Norfolk 
sea-beaches (having been washed out of the boulder clay and 
glacial drift in which they were brought from the igneous rocks 
far to the north) are the true chalcedony, certainly of the ancients, 
if not of all modern writers. 
