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154 PRECIOUS STONES.
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that are really valuable—the amethyst and the water sapphire.
OCCIDENTAL AMETHYST.
The
amethyst, whose violet colour varies according to the quantity of
oxide of manganese combined with the silica, has all the properties of
quartz.
This
substance is found in France, Prussia, Hungary, Arabia, Ceylon,
Kamtschatka, &c. The environs of Carthagena in Spain furnish the
most beautiful specimens of amethyst; and they are the more remarkable
that they show a purple reflection vying with that of the oriental
amethyst.
Brazil
furnishes to commerce at the present day the greater number of
amethysts. In that part of the world amethysts attain an enormous size.
A block of amethyst, sent from the Brazils to Calcutta, is said to have
weighed 98 pounds. Some of the Brazilian specimens are of two colours.
The Count de Bournon possessed a cut and polished stone of this kind
half violet and half yellow.
The
ancients believed that wine, when drunk from an amethyst cup, lost the
power of causing intoxication. Accordingly the attributes of Bacchus
and Silenus are frequently found engraved upon ancient cups of amethyst.
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