The garnet in English watches plays an important part for pallets, also for roller-pins; a very soft stone, but very porous. When set in the pallet with a pointed toothed wheel, it is apt to act as a file from its porosity, cutting the end of the tooth. This may be detected in any pointed tooth lever watch, by observing the color of the back of the tooth. “Black vomit” it used to be called in the Boston factory. Most of the garnet used is an Oriental stone, the best quality coming in bead form, the holes having been pierced by the natives. The cost of piercing the stone in Europe or America would be far above its value. The Oriental is the best for Horological purposes, though Hungary and Bohemia furnish the most highly prized stones used for ornamental purposes; indeed, in some German towns the cutting and setting of the garnet is a specialty, giving employment to a large number of people. And, strange to say, the best market for their sale is the United States. This comprises about all the stones used in watch and chronometer jewelling. Still in clock work the pallets are generally jewelled in agate, a stone not at all suited to the purpose, it having, even in the best specimens, a decided stratification that prevents an uniform surface being formed by any process. The cornelian form of the agate is not open to this objection, and makes capital bearings for knife edges of fine balances, and compass stones for centres of magnetic needles. For watch or chronometer purposes the only really useful stones are sapphire, ruby, chrysolite, and aqua marine--all possessing peculiarities that deserve some remarks, as they are of the utmost importance to the hole maker. The sapphire is the hardest stone, next to the diamond, and yet specimens can be, and are found, so soft as to _drag_ in polishing. Again, if stratified very clearly, will “fire crack” in opening the hole. The ruby is more uniform in its structure, and is more highly prized on that account; its hardness being all that is necessary, while its susceptibility of receiving a high polish is equal to that of the sapphire or chrysolite. The aqua marine is always uniform and may be polished both externally and in the hole with “tripoli,” saving something in diamond powder in the process of making. In our estimation, however, the chrysolite is the most valuable of all the stones. True, when purchased in the rough, many pieces will be found unfit for the jeweller’s purpose; but when the right quality is found, nothing can be better adapted to jewelling. Hard, it is easily wrought, taking a peculiar _unctious_ polish, retaining oil in its most limpid condition for a long time.