38 EMERALD. 
pazes. Small stones of this description have recently 
been found at St. Michael's Mount, in Cornwall. 
There is imported from Brazil a yellow kind of 
crystal (83), which is so similar, in its appearance, to 
the yellow topaz as sometimes to be imposed upon pur- 
chasers for that stone. 
67. The EMERALD is a well-known gem, of pure green 
colour, and somewhat harder than quartz. 
Its natural form is a short six-sided prism ; but it is some- 
times found massive, and rounded like a pebble. 
By the ancients the emerald was a gem much in re- 
quest, and particularly for engraving upon. They de- 
nominated it smaragdus, and are said to have procured 
it from Ethiopia and Egypt; but, besides the true 
emerald, Pliny, under this title, includes green jasper 
(96), malachite (231), fluor spar (194), and some other 
green minerals. The pillars of emerald in the temple of 
Hercules at Tyre, mentioned by Herodotus, and the 
large emeralds described by Pliny as having been cut 
into columns and statues, cannot be referred to the true 
emerald. 
The deepest coloured and most valuable emeralds that 
we are acquainted with are brought from Peru. They 
are found in clefts and veins of granite, and other pri- 
mitive rocks ; sometimes grouped with the crystals of 
quartz (76), felspar (110), and mica (123); and, not un- 
frequently, loose in the sand of rivers. The most an- 
cient emerald mine is that of Manta, in Peru, but it has 
been some time exhausted; and most of the emeralds 
that are now brought to Europe are obtained from a 
mine situated in the valley of Tunca, between the 
mountains of New Grenada and Popayan. 
The emerald is one of the softest of the precious 
stones ; and is almost exclusively indebted for its value 
to its charming colour. The brilliant purple of the 
ruby, the golden yellow of the topaz, the celestial blue 
of the sapphire, are all pleasing tints ; but the green of 
the emerald is so lovely, that the eye, after glancing 
