In general garnets are stones of inferior value. When compared with the ruby, those even of finest quality have a very sombre appearance. The kinds most esteemed are such as have a clear and intense red colour, or a rich violet or purplish tinge. The best garnets are cut in the manner of other precious stones, and are usually set upon a foil of the same colour. To heighten the colour and transparency of certain garnets, jewellers either form them into what are called doublets, by attaching to the lower part of the stone a thin plate of silver, or they hollow them underneath. Crystals of garnet sometimes occur three or four inches in diameter. These are cut into small vases; which, if of good colour, and free from defects, are highly valued. Many fine engravings have been executed on garnet. One of the most beautiful that is known is a figure of the dog Sirius, in the possession of Lord Duncannon. The coarser kinds of garnet are used as emery for the polishing of other minerals; and are thus prepared. They are made red─hot, then quenched in water, reduced to powder in an iron mortar, and lastly diffused through water, poured into other vessels, and allowed to settle, in order to obtain an uniform powder. This powder is known to artists by the name of _red emery_. It has been conjectured that our garnet was the same kind of stone which, on account of its colour, the ancients denominated _carbuncle_. 71. COMMON GARNET.—A very inferior variety of garnet, of brown or greenish brown colour, is found in our own country, and particularly amongst rocks near Huntley, in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. These garnets, however, are, in general, so soft as to be of little value to the lapidary; and consequently are seldom cut or polished for ornamental purposes. But being easily fused, and abounding in iron, they are occasionally employed as a flux in the smelting of rich iron ores: and as an addition to poor ones. 72. SYRIAN GARNETS _are distinguished by their violet or purplish tinge_. Some writers state that they have their name from the word Soranus, which signifies a red stone; and others from Sirian, a town in Pegu, where they are said to be found in great beauty. 73. PYROP GARNETS _are of a dark blood─red colour_, which, when the stones are held between the eye and the light, falls strongly into yellow: they are chiefly brought from Bohemia: are employed in almost every kind of jewellery, and generally set with a gold foil. At Waldkirch, in Suabia, there are twenty─four mills for the cutting and polishing of pyrop garnets: and 140 masters are occupied in manufacturing these stones. 74. VESUVIAN _is a liver─brown kind of garnet_, that was originally found among rocks ejected from Mount Vesuvius; and in the vicinity of which mountain it still occurs in considerable abundance. At Naples it is cut into stones for rings and other ornaments. Vesuvian has of late years been found in other parts of Europe; and even at Kilranelagh, and Donegal, in Ireland.