COMMON GARNET. 43 
the polishing of other minerals ; and are thus prepared. 
They are made red-hot, then quenched in water, re- 
duced to powder in an iron mortar, and lastly diffused 
through water, poured into other vessels, and allowed 
to settle, in order to obtain an uniform powder. This 
powder is known to artists by the name of red emery, 
It has- been conjectured that our garnet was the 
same kind of stone which, on account of its colour, the 
ancients denominated carbuncle. 
71. COMMON GARNET. A very inferior variety of 
garnet, of brown or greenish brown colour, is found 
In our own country, and particularly amongst rocks 
near Huntley, in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. These gar- 
nets, however, are, in general, so soft as to be of little 
value to the lapidary ; and consequently are seldom cut 
or polished for ornamental purposes. But being easily 
fused, and abounding in iron, they are occasionally em- 
ployed as a flux in the smelting of rich iron ores : and as 
an addition to poor ones. 
7 C 2. SYRIAN GARNETS are distinguished by their vio- 
let or purplish tinge. Some writers state that they have 
their name from the word Soranus, which signifies a 
red stone ; and others from Sirian, a town in Pegu, 
where they are said to be found in great beauty. 
73. PYROP GARNETS are of a dark blood-red colour, 
which, when the stones are held between the eye and 
the light, falls strongly into yellow : they are chiefly 
brought from Bohemia : are employed in almost every 
kind of jewellery, and generally set with a gold foil. At 
Waldkirch, in Suabia, there are twenty-four mills for 
the cutting and polishing of pyrop garnets : and 140 
masters are occupied in manufacturing these stones. 
74. VESUVIAN is a liver-brown kind of garnet, that 
was originally found among rocks ejected from Mount 
Vesuvius; and in the vicinity of which mountain it 
still occurs in considerable abundance. At Naples it 
