EXTRACT FROM TAVERNIER’S VOYAGES.

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about tbe middle of the ifland, and as it is greatly fwelled by the rains, three or fourmonths after they have fallen and the water is low, the poor people go and fearchamongft the fand, where they find rubies, fapphires, and topazes. All the ftonesfound at this river are generally finer and clearer than thofe of Pegu.

I had forgot to obferve, that in the mountains which run from Pegu to the kingdomof Camboya , there are places where rubies are found, though they are more ofbalays than the others, with many fpinels, fapphires, and topazes. In thefe moun-tains gold mines are alfo met with, and it is from this place that the fine rhubarbis produced, which is held in high eftimation, becaufe it does not fpoil fo foon as thatwhich grows in other parts of Alia.

There are alfo two other places in Europe in which coloured ftones are found, thatis Bphemia and Hungary. In Bohemia is a’mine, containing certain flint ftones of va-rious fizes, feme as big as eggs, and others as large as the fill, which on breaking arefound to enclofe rubies as hard and fine as thofe of Pegu. I remember being one dayRt Prague with the viceroy of Hungary , to whofe fuite I belonged, when he, walkingwith General Walleftein, Duke of Eridland, before fitting down to table, law on thefinger of the general a ruby, of which he greatly praifed the beauty : but his admi-ration was further increafed on the general’s informing him that the mine which yieldedthofe ftones was in Bohemia , and in fact on the viceroy’s departure he prefented himwith about a hundred of thefe pebbles in a balket. As we were on our return intoHungary , the viceroy ordered them to be broke, but in all the number there was onlytwo that each contained a ruby, the one, a large ftone, might -weigh near five carats,and the other about one carat.

In Hungary .there is alfo a mine in which alone opals are found, it being the foieplace on earth that produces them.

The turquoife is only found in Perfia, being produced from two mines, one calledthe old rock, about three days journey from Meched, approaching to the north-weftnear a large town called Nichabourg;. and the other which they call the new mine, atabout five days journey from the fame place. Thofe found at the new mine areof a bad blue approaching to white, they are but little valued, and a great number°f them may be purchafed for a fmall fum. But for feveral years paft the King ofPerfia has forbid any one digging in the old rock except for himfelf, becaufe therebeing no goldfmiths in that country, but thofe who work in thread or wire, andwho underftand nothing of enamelling on gold, as people that have few defigns°r patterns, he inftead of enamel, caufes his fabres, poignards, and other articlesto be ornamented with thefe turquoifes from the old rock, which they cut and fixfit the collets in the lhape of various flowers and figures, according to fancy. Thisftfikes the eye as a tedious minute work, but is without any defign.

Laftlv, with refpecc to the emerald, it is an ancient miftake of many well-informedperfons,\jftat they are found originally in the Eaft, and even to this day the greaterPart of the jewellers and goldfmiths, as foon as they fee an emerald of a highdolour approaching to black, are accuftomed to call it an oriental emerald, in whichthey are miftaken. I confefs that I have not yet been able to difcover thofe placeson our continent, from whence thefe ftones are procured, but I am well alluredthat they are never brought from the Eaft, nor in the 'continent of Afia, nor anyof its files, and that having made a diligent enquiry in all my travels, I have neveroeen able to meet with any perfon that could point out any part of Afia in whichthey were found. It is true .that fince the difcovery of America , they have oftenbrought by the fouth feas fome unpolfihed ftones from Perou to the Philippine

k k. 2 iflands,