argirite, or magnes, was
a very lustrous stone, so like silver that it might easily be mistaken
for it ; its texture, and the large sized pieces in which it was found,
allowed of its being formed, carved, and engraved in every manner ;
therefore the ancients made it even into vases, and it was much prized
and used in many different ways.
Hill observes that the precious stone which the Greeks named magnes was totally different from that which to-day is generally understood under the name which we translate magnetica. Kirman gives the denomination of argentina to
the schistose spar, which has a very bright pearly light. Hauy, at the
word Argentina, says : see moon-stone. Dutens believed that argentina
was a resplendent girasol on a silvery white ground; but the
description of argentina does not give us the characteristics of the
girasol, which always has a little yellow inside, is semi-transparent
and sometimes transparent, whereas the argirite was necessarily opaque
from its similarity to silver.
Caire
says that by chance he became possessed of a hard stone, whose
appearance led him to compare it with argirite, " which was thought
quite lost, and had been sought for so long." He continued: " It is
formed of very thin leaves ; a very bright silvery colour pervades it,
without the deviating hues which are seen in cat's eye."
I
remember two objects of similar form, of unknown use and material, like
cornucopias terminated by two horses' heads, which were in the Campana
Museum.
