230 NATURAL HISTORY OF PRECIOUS STONES, &c.
gravel;
in Australia, where the diggers meet with them by the thousand in the
gold-washings, and giving them the name of Garnets, take no further
heed of them. Yet this last region will probably soon rival Pegu when
the placers come to be examined by experienced eyes, for it is
said on good authority that a few Eubies of very fair qualify have
already found their way from Australia into the London market.
It
is a certain, though utterly inexplicable fact, that all precious
stones produced in Europe, fall infinitely short both in tint and in
lustre of their congeners matured by the sun of the tropics, although
chemistry can detect no difference in the constituents of the two
classes. Never theless Tavernier, a jeweller of the widest experience,
talks of Eubies discovered in his time in Bohemia, that could not be
distinguished from those of Pegu, and tells thereanent the following
remarkable anecdote, which I transcribe as best given in his own words
:—" Je me souviens qu'estant un jour à Prague avec le Vice-Boy de
Hongrie à qui j'étois, comme il lavoit avec le Général Wallenstein, Duc
de Friedland, pour se mettre à table, il vit à la main de ce Général un
Eubi dont il loua la bonté. Mais il l'admira bien plus quand
Wallenstein lui dit que la mine de ces pierres estoit en Bohême ; et de
fait au départ du Vice-Roy il lui fit présent d'environ une centaine de
ces cailloux dans une corbeille. Quand nous fûmes de retour en Hongrie,
le Vice-Roy les fesoit rompre ; et de tous ces caillous il n'y en eut
que deux dans chacun desquels on trouva un Eubi : l'un assez grand, qui
pouvoit peser près de cinq carats, et l'autre d'un carat ou environ."
It
would be in vain to look in any modern mineralogist for so accurate and
instructive a description of the natural characters of the Spinel, and
its variations, as that left us by Ben Mansur. " The Laal has four
sorts : the red, the yellow,
