Corundum Stone from Asia. 413 
cards. It is a brown micaceous substance, which in drying 
foliates, and shews a certain degree of regular arrangement of 
the component parts ; in this case, the fragments of the folia 
subdivide, with some degree of regularity, into rhombs, whose 
angles are 6 o° and 120°: it is more smooth, and less flexible, 
than pure mica. 
These are all the sorts of Corundum which I procured from 
India. 
I now proceed to the result of my inquiries in China. 
I requested Capt. Gumming, in 178b, at that time command- 
ing the Company’s ship Britannia, to take a specimen of Corun- 
dum to China, to ascertain its nature, and to obtain specimens, 
if possible, adhering to their matrix, and regularly crystallized. 
On his arrival at Canton, he collected the information I wished, 
with the good sense and zealous desire which he always exerts 
for his friends. He ascertained that the stone I inquired for, 
was in common use with the stone-cutters ; and he brought me 
the stone, in its rude and in its pounded state, taking care to 
select the most regularly crystallized pieces, and others adhe- 
ring to the rock. A stone-cutter was sawing rock crystal 
with a hand-saw, which he also brought to me ; it is a piece 
of bamboo, slit, about 3 feet long, and inch broad, thickened 
at the handle by a piece of wood, rivetted with two iron pins ; 
having a lump of lead tied with a thong of split rattan, steady- 
ing an iron pin, on which the end of a twisted iron wire 
is fastened, which, being stretched to the handle, is passed 
through a hole in the bamboo, with the superabundant wire ; 
a wooden peg, being pressed into the hole, keeps the bow 
bent, and the wire stretched, and serves to coil the superfluous 
