MARBLE. 
3/0 
much resembles hard white sugar, and is frequently 
as free from impurities; sometimes, however, it is 
mixed with other substances, and encloses differ- 
ent kinds of stones as well as portions of several 
metals. 
This kind of marble is found in enormous masses, 
forming beds of very considerable thickness, and 
often occupying the major part of a mountain. 
Geologists have, for the most part, considered the 
white marble as belonging exclusively to crystallized 
earths, and as coeval with porphyry, granit,&c. This 
opinion is strengthened by finding it in alternate 
layers with primitive substances, and always in- 
clined to the horizon in the same degree. The 
Alps, according to mineralogists, and especially the 
Pyrenees, exhibit frequent examples of this dispo- 
sition, where vertical layers of white marble, and 
beds of granite, may be seen disposed alternately. 
Similar instances occur at Inverary in Scotland, 
where this substance has been found under beds of 
porphyry. As another proof in favour of the sup- 
position, it is alleged that no decayed organic re- 
mams are ever found enclosed in white marble. 
Among artists this calcareous stone is highly 
esteemed for busts, statues, &c. and is from thence 
called statuary marble. The most celebrated blocks 
for this purpose are brought from quarries situated 
in the isles of Paros, Naxos, and Tenedos, in the 
Archipelago. The marble from these places has al- 
ways been in request, and was much employed by the 
antient sculptors, who used it for some of their most 
