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Bactrian Gold Treasure from Afghanistan, coming soon....
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NOTES.
417
aloft illumines the scene, aided by a twinkling star or two. The whole painted in different shades of brown and white, is full of repose, and of a feeling strongly reminding one of Bewick's inimitable little vignettes of similar subjects.
The Chinese manufacture monster Agates displaying the most vivid colours, most picturesquely disposed, by staining thin slabs of alabaster by some process of their own ; and these fictitious lusus natures aïe often to be seen treasured in this country as singular rarities ; yet more wonderful was the invention of the Florentine anatomist (the secret died with him) of petrifying human viscera into real Agates. There is a table-top made up of hearts, livers, lungs, &c, thus agatised into one solid and large slab, pre­served in the Hospital of S. Spirito ; mete board for a banquet of vampyres.
How firm was the faith of our forefathers in the medical virtues of the Agate is curiously exemplified by a jewel presented to Queen Elizabeth by Archbishop Parker (lately exhibited at the Archasological Institute). It is a large oval Agate, engraved with a fine intaglio in the style of the period, Venus present in Vulcan's forge, and set for a pendant. The parchment accompanying the gift contains a long account of the numerous virtues of the gem, winding up with this dedication, the conceit whereof doubtless passed at the time for one of the happiest in its line—
BORNEO DIAMONDS, p. 84.
Lowe (Sarawak) states that some have been found at Sarawak ; but the mines now worked are at Landak, Sangoar, and Benjarmain, which pro­duce stones of small size but of fine water, and occasionally up to 12 and 13 carats in weight.
Africa is reckoned by Pliny amongst the diamond-yielding countries ; and his assertion has been lately verified. In 1840 M. Héricart de Thury announced to the Acade'mie des Sciences that diamonds had been found in the river Goumal, province of Constantine, mingled with the gold dust brought down by the stream. One specimen weighing 3 carats was bought for the Ecole des Mines, Paris; another of five grains for the Musée de l'Histoire Naturelle ; the third by the Marquis de Drée.
Similarly modern research has confirmed Ammean's notice of the abund­ance of diamonds in the region of the Agathyrsi. In the gold mine of Adolph, Siberia, between 1830 and 1833, were found upwards of fifty diamonds, octahedrons and dodecahedrons ; one of considerable size, the rest from one to three grains in weight. This mine lies on the bank of the Biserek, a brook flowing into the Kama to .the west of the Ural, in the government of Perm. The alluvial deposit containing them is of the same nature as that in the Brazilian workings, being a ferruginous clay mixed with a bright red sand, together with quartz crystals, iron-oxide, prases and calcedonies and black dolomite.
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