oxide of iron, and sometimes of oxide of manganese.
Another
variety, greatly prized by the ancients for its miraculous power of
curing colics and the bites of venomous insects, is called nephritic
jade, or nephrite stone; it is of a pale-green colour, sometimes with a
slight tinge of lilac
Antique
objects made of jade are so hard that they can only be cut by the
diamond; and as these objects are many of them of considerable
dimensions, and their number is too great to suggest such difficult
labour, it is supposed that when this jade was taken from the mine it
was easily cut, and afterwards attained its hardness by exposure to the
air, or perhaps by the direct action of fire.
The jade of Saussure, found in Switzerland, is a species differing somewhat from the Indian jade; and the axe-stone jade is a product of South America. It has been called the amazon stone, and
Humboldt says that the Caribbees used the jade stone as amulets, cut in
the shape of the Perse-politan cylinders, longitudinally perforated,
and covered with inscriptions.
The
principal mines of European jade are in Turkey and in Poland, where it
is wrought into knife-handles, daggers, &c, and is softer than the
oriental jade.
The Chinese are particularly fond of jade, and
