GRANITE. 
427 
Patrin says that we ought to rank among the 
oriental granites, the superb violet kind found in the 
Isle of Elba. It is composed of green felt-spar in 
large crystals, forming polygonal spots. The pe- 
destal of the equestrian statue on the place of the 
Annunciation at Florence is of this granite, as well 
as the base of the chapel of St. Laurence. 
Large round blocks of a very fine hard granite, of 
a red colour, are found in the environs of Petersburg. 
This stone is called the granite of Ingria. When 
this granite is polished, the felt-spar which it con- 
tains appears in large oval or round spots, and 
with such lustre that the stone seems to be covered 
with jewels. The public promenade at Petersburg, 
called the Summer Garden, is decorated with a su- 
perb colonnade of this granite. This colonnade is 
described as a most magnificent piece of art. It 
consists of about sixty columns of the Tuscan order, 
each of which is about twenty feet high and three 
feet in diameter. The quay of the Neva, and the 
magnificent Canal of Catherine , are constructed of 
this granite, which also serves for the pedestal of the 
statue of Peter the Great. This famous stone was 
at first thirty-two feet long, twenty-one thick, and 
seventeen high ; but it has been much reduced, in 
order to make it of a more becoming size. 
The blocks of granite found in the neighbour- 
hood of Petersburg are supposed to be the wreck 
of antient mountains in the province of Ingria, of 
which scarcely any thing remains but the base. 
