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duced
by the diverging arrangement of its layers and its pearly colour.
Finally, it is found in large folds or slabs, like that of glass which
is used in windows.
Mica, when of a good colour, could be used for many ornaments. The ancients, under the name of vilrum speculare, used
great squares of this substance to exclude the air from their rooms,
and very often fragments of it are dug out of ancient ruins. In Siberia
it is still used for this purpose, and it is put, in place of glass, in
Russian ships.
The glazing of the stove invented by Dr. Kott, of New York, is of mica.
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LXIV.
MOSAIC.
The place
which mosaic takes in feminine ornaments, and the material of which it
is formed, induce me to say a few words about it, although most
frequently it is composed of materials which cannot be strictly called
gems.
Mosaic
is a work done in minute inlayings of glass, breccia, or agate, of
varied colours, which, cemented together by a particular stucco, are
formed into designs of all kinds, like colours on canvas.
From
this it may be easily understood that they may be divided into three
classes, viz., mosaics in glass, mosaics in breccia, and mosaics in
pietra dura.
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