COL 
ing this yellow earth into w’lat is there 
called “ English red,” it contains 50 per 
cent, argil, 40 oxide of iron, 10 of water, 
acidniated by sulphuric acid. Tlie 3d family, 
or black ; black chalk is of a greyish black 
colour ; fracture imperfectly curved slaty ; 
fragments partly flat, partly long splintery ; 
adheres slightly to the tongue, feels smooth, 
assumes a polish from a knife; gives a black 
streak, and marks black ; in water does not 
readily moulder, but if taken out cracks in 
a short time ; does not effervesce with 
acids, nor easily dissolve in them ; heated to 
redness, it crackles and becomes reddish 
grey, and contains somewhat vitriolic. The 
4th family, green earth, is of a greyish green 
colour ; found generally in lumps in the 
cavities of other stones, or externally in- 
vesting them ; fracture, earthy, sometimes 
uneven, sometimes verging to the con- 
choidal; sp. gr. 2.637, sometimes feels 
smooth, does not assume a polish from the 
knife, nor adhere to the tongue, nor stain 
the fingers, nor mark while dry, and when 
wet but lightly, in water it often crumbles 
after standing about half an hour ; does not 
effervesce w'ith acids, nor is easily soluble 
in them ; heated to redness, it crackles and 
becomes of a dark reddish cream colour ; at 
147°, a specimen was melted into a black 
compact glass, resembling that of basalt ; 
which shews it to consist of silex, argil, 
iron not much oxygenated, and oxide of 
nickel, from which the green colour is de- 
rived, besides water. 
COLO.SSUS, a statue of enormous or 
gigantic size. The most eminent of this 
kind was the colossus of Rhodes, one of the 
wonders of the world, a brazen statue of 
Apollo, so high, that ships passed with full 
sails betwixt its legs. It was the work- 
manship of Chares, a disciple of Lysippus, 
who spent twelve years in makii?g it : it 
was at length overthrown by an earth- 
quake, B. C, 224, after having stood about 
sixty-six years, Its height was a hundred 
and five feet : there were few people who 
could encompass its thumb, which is said to 
have been a fathom in circumference, and 
its fingers were larger than most statues. 
It was hollow, and in its cavities were 
large stones employed by the artificer to 
counterbalance its weight, and render it 
steady on its pedestal. 
On occasion of the damage which the 
city of Rhodes sustained by the above- 
mentioned eai-thquake, the inhabitants sent 
ambassadors to all the princes and states of 
Greek origin, in order to solicit assistance 
COL 
for repairing it ; and they obtained large' 
sums, particularly from the kings of Egypt, 
Macedon, Syria, Pontus, and Bithynia, 
which amounted to a sum five times ex- 
ceeding the damages which they had suf- 
fered. But instead of setting up the Co- 
lossus again, for which purpose the greatest 
part of it was given, they pretended that 
the oracle of Delphos had forbidden it, and 
converted the money to other uses. Ac- 
cordingly the Colossus lay neglected on the 
ground for the space of 894 years, at the 
expiration of which period, or about the 
year of our Lord 653, or 672, Moawyas, the 
6ih caliph or emperor of the Saracens, made 
himself master of Rhodes, and afterwards 
sold their statue, reduced to fragments, to 
a Jewish merchant, who loaded 900 camels 
with the metal, so that, allowing 800 
pounds weight for each load, the brass of 
the Colossus, after the diminution which it 
had sustained by rust, and probably by 
theft, amounted to 720 tliousand pounds 
weight, The basis that supported it was of 
a triangular figure : its extremities were 
sustained by sixty pillars of marble. There 
was a winding staircase to go up to the top 
of it; from whence one might discover Sy- 
ria, and the ships that went to Egypt, in a 
great looking-glass that was hung about the 
neck of the statue. This enormous statue 
was not the only one that attracted atten- 
tion in the city of Rhodes. Pliny reckons 
100 other colossuses not so large, which 
rose miijestically in its different quarters. 
COLOUR means that property of bodies 
w'hich affects the sight only; thus the grass 
in the fields has a green colour, blood has a 
red colour, the sky generally appears of a 
blue colour, and so forth ; nor can those 
colours be distinguished by any of our other 
senses besides the sight. The variety of 
colours, as they are presented to us by the 
substances that surroiind us, is immense, 
and from them arises the admirable beauty 
of the works of nature in the animal, in the 
vegetable, and in the mineral kingdom, or, 
more properly speaking, in the universe. 
The science which examines and explains 
the various properties of tlie colours of light 
and of natural bodies, and which forms a 
principal branch of optics, has been pro- 
perly denominated clu-omatics. See Chro- 
matics. 
Colour, in heraldry, the heraldic colours 
are nine, and were anciently expressed by 
the word tincture ; viz. or, argent, azure, 
gules, sable, vert, purpure, tenney, and 
sanguine ; and also by precious stones and 
