400 
EMERALD. 
world. For instance, in Siberia these gems are 
found of the same form, the same specific gravity, 
and the same hardness as those of Peru ; but their 
colour is not so good. The same mountain we 
have already noticed as producing the topaz, also 
affords the emerald. On the declivity of the Odon - 
Tchelon there are two layers of emeralds : the first 
is not far from a rivulet ; the second is towards the 
middle of the mountain. When Patrin visited this 
spot in July 1785, the countrymen who are em- 
ployed to collect the emeralds had obtained per- 
mission to attend to their agricultural pursuits ; 
nevertheless, with the assistance of a few persons 
who attended him, he contrived to bring home some 
interesting specimens. This mineralogist informs 
us, that the emeralds are found 3 or 400 toises to 
the north-east of the chrysolites (other gems found 
in the same mountain), and in a higher situation by 
100 toises. He perceived a great fissure in one 
place, with an opening nearly horizontal, but de- 
scending very obliquely into the mountain between 
two beds of solid granit. This fissure is several feet 
wide and some fathoms in length. It is full of a 
ferruginous clay mixed with mica ; and in this bed 
the emeralds are found, not adhering to the granit, 
but dispersed without order in the argillaceous 
earth. 
Emeralds, in their rough or native state, consist 
of hexagonal columns, mostly truncated at both 
ends. “ I have,” says Engestrom, “ samples of 
both transparent grass green and light green co- 
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