The ruby and sapphire have the same crystalline form, and are nearly allied to corundum; both are found in Ceylon, in the gravel of streams. The rubies at Gharan, on the verge of the river Oxus, are found imbedded in limestone. The gravel of rivulets in the Birman empire contains the oriental, star, and opalescent rubies. The spinelle also occurs in that country in a district five days’ journey from Ava. The Hungarian rubies are of inferior value. The blue, green, yellow, and white sapphires are the produce of the Birman empire, and the spinelle is not uncommon in Brazil. The finest emeralds come from veins of clay-slate in the valley of Musa, in New Grenada. Beryls are found in Brazil, and in the old mines in Mount Zabarah, in Upper Egypt. Those of Hungary and of the Heubach Valley, near Saltzburg, are very inferior in colour and quality. Hungary and Bohemia yield the finest opals; the most esteemed are opaque, of a pale brown, and shine with the most brilliant iridescence; some are white, transparent, or semi-transparent, and radiant in colours: the precious opal is found in Hungary and in Mexico. The most beautiful garnets come from Bohemia and Hungary; they are found in the Hartz mountains, Ceylon, and many other localities. The turquoise is a Persian gem, and supposed to be the fossilized enamel of the tooth of a fossil mastodon; it is also found in Tibet and in the Belat-Tagh in Badakshan, which is the country of the lapis lazuli, mined by heating the rock, and then throwing cold water upon it. This beautiful mineral is also found in several places of the Hindoo Coosh, in the hills of Istalif north of Cabool, in Tibet, and in the Baikal mountains in Siberia. The cat’s-eye is peculiar to Ceylon; the king of Kandy had one two inches broad. Topaz, beryl, and amethyst are of very common occurrence, especially in Brazil, Siberia, and other places. They are little valued, and scarcely accounted gems. Agates are so beautiful on the table-land of Tibet, and in some parts of the desert of the Great Gobi, that they form a considerable article of commerce in China; and some are brought to Rome, where they are cut into cameos and intaglios. But the greater part of the agates, cornelians, and chalcedonies used in Europe are found in the trap-rocks of Oberstein, in the Palatinate. Thus, by her unseen ministers, electricity and reciprocal action, the great artificer Nature has adorned the depths of the earth and the heart of the mountains with her most admirable works, filling the veins with metals, and building the atoms of matter, with the most elegant and delicate symmetry, into innumerable crystalline forms of inimitable grace and beauty. The calm and still exterior of the earth gives no indication of the activity that prevails in its bosom, where treasures are preparing to enrich future generations of man. Gold will still be sought for in the deep mine, and the diamond will be gathered among the débris of the mountains, while time endures.