JET. 159 
masses from an inch to seven or eight feet in length, having a 
Jine or regular structure, and a grain resembling that of 
wood. 
It has sometimes been confounded with cannel coal (219), but 
it is easily distinguished by its superior hardness : Jet cannot 
without difficulty be scratched with a knife, whilst cannel coal 
may be marked by the simple pressure of the nail. 
The name of jet has been derived from Gages, a river 
of Lycia, whence the ancients are said to have obtained 
this substance. It is frequently cast ashore on the 
eastern coasts of England, together with pieces of 
amber and curious pebbles, particularly near Lovvestoft 
in Suffolk, and in' some parts of Yorkshire, where many 
persons employ their leisure in searching for it, and 
forming it into various kinds of trinkets. Jet is found 
in several countries of the Continent. 
It is stated that in the district of Aude, in France, 
there are more than 1,000 persons constantly employed 
in the fabrication of jet into rosaries, buttons, ear-rings, 
necklaces, bracelets, snuff-boxes, and trinkets of dif- 
ferent kinds. Near fifty tons weight of it are annually 
used for this purpose; and articles to the value of 
18,000 livres are said to be sold in Spain alone. In 
Prussia the amber diggers call it black amber, because 
it is found accompanying that substance ; and because, 
like amber, it is faintly electric, or attracts feathers and 
other light objects when rubbed. They manufacture 
it into various ornamental articles, arid sell these to ig- 
norant persons, as black amjper, at a great price. 
In different parts of the globe the trunks of trees, 
which have been long buried, have passed into the 
state of jet ; and, in almost all these trees may be 
traced the distinctive characters of the species to which 
they belong. They are more or less brittle, more or 
less unctuous, according to the species, the degree of 
alteration, and the nature of the soil. All of them have 
a smooth and glassy fracture, but all are not adapted 
for the tool of the workman. When, for instance, the 
texture of the tree presents only a mass of dry fibres, 
