browner
hue and often shows a bluish or greenish fluorescence. The amber from
Upper Burma may perhaps be a different resin but it presents, in many
specimens at least, very much of the same range of yellow hues as
Baltic amber. But bur mite, as it has been called, occurs
sometimes having a purplish brown colour : in the Indian Museum at
South Kensington there is a specimen of this kind nearly a foot in
length, from King Theebaw's Palace at Man-dalav. It is carved into the
form of a duck. Beads and other objects of amber are frequently found
in early burial places in Europe. Usually the surfaces have become
somewhat darker in colour, less translucent, and somewhat friable : in
some instances, however, the material has resisted oxidation in a
remarkable manner, witness the amber objects from some of the primitive
graves at Abydos and the beautiful amber cup in the Brighton Museum.
Although
imitations of amber in yellow glass may be easily detected by means of
their coldness to the touch and by their greater density, it is more
difficult to distinguish copal resin from amber ; still the odour of
the latter when rubbed vigorously affords one means of identification.
Jet.
Jet
can hardly be regarded in any sense as a precious stone although it
has been used from early times for beads, pins, armlets, and other
objects of personal adornment. Many examples in perfect preservation
have been found in Celtic and Romano-British graves. Jet is a dense,
homogeneous, perfectly black variety of coal, having a hardness
approaching 40 and a smooth concho dal fracture. It is still worked to some extent at Whitby on the Yorkshire coast.
Malachite.
Malachite
is never used in the higher class of jewellery ; its softness, opacity,
and crude hue are not in its favour. In Russia S4W.
H
