instance of this kind happened when the Prince Palatine,
after the battle of Prague, in 1620, succeeded in carrying off
his jewels, valued at a great price, with the proceeds of which
he was enabled to defray his expenses during his exile in
Holland ; a parallel example is afforded in the history of
James II. of England.
When a gem is spoken of as large or small, it is, of course, in
reference to the size of others of the same species, and, in this
sense, a precious stone may be called gigantic when of an unprecedented weight ; there are a number of this kind on record.
Among diamonds there are several of this class, as may be seen
in the "Table on the Size of Celebrated Diamonds"; of
sapphires a very large specimen, if not the largest, weighs one
hundred and thirty-two and one-sixteenth carats, and is called
the Ruspoli, the name of one of its owners, also the Woodenspoon-seller, from the occupation of its discoverer, in Bengal.
It was bought by a Parisian jeweller for thirty-four thousand
dollars, and is now in the Museum of Mineralogy, Paris. The
" Hope " pearl, forming a pendant in the imperial crown of
Great Britain, weighs three ounces, or three hundred and sixty
carats, and is considered the largest known, and a cat's-eye,
called also the " Hope," measures one and a half inches in
diameter.
The largest ruby known in Europe, presented to Catherine
II., Empress of Russia, by Gustavus III., King of Sweden,
when on a visit to her court, in 1777, is of the size of a hen's
egg and of fine tint. The largest seen in India by Tavernier
did not exceed fifty carats, and the largest in the French
regalia is said to weigh less than nine carats. The Devonshire
emerald from Bogota, South America, measures two inches in
length and weighs nearly nine ounces ; one owned by Duleep
Singh is still larger, and a crystal from North Carolina has a
