“A common but erroneous belief is that the gems are formed in the mountains and washed down by the abrasion of the rocks and deposited in the alluvial bottoms. If it were so, they would have been traced to their source and sought for in the mountains, where they would naturally be found in greater quantities; but the natives never think of searching for precious stones in such places, and in the localities where they are found there does not appear to have been any local alteration in the veins of gravel since they were first thrown there; and my own conviction formed from observation on the spot, and for this and other reasons following, is that the sapphire and other gems have been formed and are still forming in the places where they are now found. In the first place, rounded sapphires and sapphire crystals with facets of brilliant lustre are found lying side by side. Secondly, both the rounded stones and the numerous perfect crystals, with their pyramids unbroken, show that they were never broken from other rocks, but were formed unattached to any matrix, in a soft medium such as fine sand or clay. I have seen hundreds of these taken loose from the same spot. Thirdly, crystals of sapphire are found with their edges reduced, yet with brilliant facets, which is inconsistent with their reduction by rolling. Fourthly, sapphire being much harder than any other stone with which it could come in contact, it is not easy to understand how any attrition could be brought to bear upon it to bring it to the beautifully translucent polish which the rounded stones usually bear more especially considering the short distance from the mountains to the alluvial bottoms between which the water-wearing process is supposed to be effected. “It is remarkable that the rounded sapphires and rubies are always the densest and of the finest water and color; showing that they were formed by different chemical forces from the others. In short, there is no more reason for supposing rounded sapphires to be water-worn than for supposing that the bowlders of jasper, for instance, on the Egyptian desert were so formed, when a fracture shows them to have been formed in concentric layers and to be in their original state. The same remarks apply to the crystals of some other minerals, as zircon, tourmaline, and spinel.” The mineralogist, in contesting this opinion, will point to the round pebbles of sapphire as evidence of disintegration and subsequent aqueous action. But upon careful inquiry we shall find that these nodular masses are regular concretions and natural formations, which do not owe their form to the abrasion of exterior force, but are the results of crystalline action. We shall also find that these peculiar stones always form the finest specimens of the class of gems to which they belong, whether sapphire, diamond, tourmaline, topaz, or chrysoberyl.