with a greenish-blue foil; the pale is set in a black ground, like the diamond, or on a silvery foil.
Beryl
is-employed in jewelry for rings, pins, ear-drops, seals, &c.: but
on account of its softness it is rendered less lasting, and as by
wearing it loses all its beauty, it does not command a high price in
market, being much below that of the emerald.
A
beryl of a carat, averages about one dollar and fifty cents, and the
price increases in the same ratio with the number of carats. The beryl
is subject to such faults as spots, feathers, and fissures.
For
the beryl, is sometimes substituted chrysolite, which is softer,
however; it is also imitated by paste, which is likewise softer than
beryl.
One
of the largest transparent beryls, weighing five hundred and
ninety-five carats, was once in the possession of a mineralogist at
Vienna. In 1811, a beryl of fifteen pounds, pure, was discovered in
Brazil. In 1825, a beautiful rounded Brazilian beryl, of four pounds
weight, was offered for sale fo'r six hundred pounds sterling.
Mawe describes a pure transparent beryl, altogether free of faults, seven inches long an^rthree quarters of an inch thick.
In
1827, a superb aquamarine, weighing thirty-five grammes, was found in
the borough of Mowzzinskaia, in Siberia, which the Russians are said to
value at six hundred thousand francs. A very remarkable aquamarine, of
extraordinary size, ornamented the tiara of Pope Julius I.
There
is also a very fine aquamarine in the Imperial Library of Paris, on
which there is a well-executed engraving, by Erodus, of Julia,
daughter of Titus.
There
is, according to Caire, another aquamarine in London-, weighing five
hundred and forty carats. In the Mineralogical Museum, of Paris, there
is an aquamarine
