Garnet has a strong tendency to crystallize, and hence is usually found as crystals. The grains of garnet found in the sands of river beds and on beaches, though not often showing crystal form, may be really fragments of crystals. Garnet is one of the most common constituents of such sands because of its hardness and power of resisting decay. These properties enable it to endure after the other ingredients of the rocks of which it formed a part have been worn away. It is quite heavy as compared with the quartz of which the sand is mostly composed, and hence continually accumulates on a beach, while the quartz is in part blown away. In such localities it will always be found near the water line, because the waves, on account of its weight, can carry it but a slight distance inland. Practically all garnet is three and one-half times as heavy as water, and some four times as heavy. Garnet, as a rule, is somewhat harder than quartz, its hardness being 7½ in the scale of which quartz is 7. Some varieties are, however, somewhat softer. The hardness of garnet and its uneven fracture are properties which give it an extensive use for rubbing and polishing wood. For this purpose it is spread upon glued paper in the manner of sandpaper and is used similarly, but it is superior to the latter. Most varieties of garnet fuse quite readily before the blowpipe, and the globules thus formed will be magnetic if the garnet contains much iron. The green garnet, uvarovite, is almost infusible, however. Garnet is not much affected by ordinary acids, although it may be somewhat decomposed by long heating. [Illustration: GARNET. LOANED BY FOOTE MINERAL CO.] Top row: Almandite (Colorado.) Almandite (Connecticut.) Center: Essonite (Italy.) Garnet in Matrix, polished (Mexico.) Garnet (Hungary.) Bottom: Garnet in Matrix (Alaska.) Uvarovite in Matrix (Canada.) The name garnet is said by some authorities to come from the Latin word granatus, meaning like a grain, and to have arisen in allusion to the resemblance of its crystals in color and size to the seeds of the pomegranate. The German word for garnet, granat, is the same as the Latin word. Others think the word derived from the Latin name of the cochineal insect in allusion to a similarity in color. The use of garnet for gem purposes seems to date back to the earliest times. Among the ornaments adorning the oldest Egyptian mummies there are frequently found necklaces containing garnet. The Romans prized the stone highly, and it is a gem very largely used at the present day, its hardness and durability and richness and permanency of color giving it all the qualities desired in a precious stone.