Large sapphires are more frequently found than large rubies and Dr. Chambers mentions one discovered in 1853 in the alluvium a few miles from Ratnapoora, which was valued at over £4000 sterling. A large specimen, three inches long, is mentioned by Professor J. D. Dana as being in the possession of Sir Abram Hume. In the Green Vaults at Dresden several great specimens are shown. The large “Saphir merveilleux” which Mr. Hope exhibited at the London Exhibition in 1851—known as the “Hope Sapphire”—was blue by day-light and amethyst colour by nightlight. This gem was last said to be in the Russian Treasury. This sapphire has nothing in common with the blue cobalt-coloured artificial spinels known as “Hope Sapphires.” Dr. G. F. H. Smith mentions several large stones, the most notable being one of 950 carats which was reported to be in the King of Ava’s treasury in 1827. The weight of the Rospoli rough sapphire in the Jardin des Plantes is 132 carats. The Duke of Devonshire has a fine sapphire of 100 carats, brilliant cut above the girdle of the stone, and step cut below. From the earliest times the sapphire had the reputation of a holy gem. Solinus says that “it feels the air and sympathizes with the heavens, shining not the same if the sky be bright or obscured.” The ancients held the gem sacred to Phœbus, not as a personification of the Sun, but rather as explained by Dr. Alexander S. Murray (Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities in the British Museum) as follows: “From the sun comes our physical light, but that light is at the same time an emblem of mental illumination, of knowledge, truth and right, of all moral purity: and in this respect a distinction was made between it as a mental and a physical phenomenon—a distinction which placed Phœbus Apollo on one side and Helios on the other. Accordingly Phœbus Apollo is the oracular god who throws light on the dark ways of the future, who slays the Python—that monster of darkness which made the oracle at Delphi inaccessible. He is the god of music and song which are only heard where light and security reign and the possession of herds is free from danger.” This is the ideal of the sign Aquarius, astrologically considered, and students of the old science well know what Solinus implies when he says that the gem of the sign Aquarius “feels the air and sympathizes with the heavens” for this sign of “air,” of fine ethereal forces, of “outer airs,” of fine subtle substances, etc., is also the sign of Heaven and the Heavens.