XIX.] 
COMxMON AND PRECIOUS STONES. 
423 
India, Borneo, Brazil, and the Transvaal. Tropical America is 
the home-land of the emerald, Brazil of the topaz, Ceylon of 
the sapphire and the hyacinth, Pegu of the ruby, and Persia of 
the turquoise. With the exception of the diamond the same 
stones are found also in the north, but in a common form. 
Thus common sapphire (corundum) is found in Gellivare iron 
ore so plentifully that the ore from certain openings is difficult 
to smelt. Common topaz is found in masses by the hundred¬ 
weight in the neighbourhood of Falun ; common emerald is 
found in thick crystals several feet in length in felspar quarries, 
in Boslagen, and in Tammela and Kisko parishes in Finland; 
o 
common spinel occurs abundantly in Aker limestone quarry; 
common zircon at Brevig in Norway, and turquoise-like but 
badly coloured stones at Vestana in Skane. True precious 
stones, on the other hand, are not found at any of these places. 
Another remarkable fact in connection with precious stones is 
that most of those that come into the market are not found in 
the solid rock, but as loose grains in sand-beds. True jewel 
mines are few, unproductive, and easily exhausted. From this 
one would be inclined to suppose that precious stones actually 
undergo an ennobling process in the warm soil of the south. 
During the excursion I undertook from Galle to Ratnapoora, I 
visited a number of temples in order to procure Pali, Singhalese, 
and Sanscrit manuscripts; and I put myself in communication 
with various natives who were supposed to possess such manu¬ 
scripts. They are now very difficult to get at, and the collection 
I made was not very large. The books which the temples 
wished to dispose of have long ago been eagerly brought up 
by private collectors or handed over to public museums, for 
example, to the Ceylon Government Oriental Library estab- 
Hungary. The latter, however, in consequence of defective hardness 
and translucency, can scarcely be reckoned among the true precious 
stones. 
