Note 218 — Chapter X

Dutens, in his book Des pierres precieuses et des pierres fines, p. 38, says, speaking of the emerald, that it is exclusively found in America, near Manta in Peru, or the valley of Tunka, in the mountains of New Granada and Popayan, and was not known to the ancients. The author of this voyage asserts, that he found emeralds in Ceylon, and I myself have obtained some of them from that island. The French jewellers, however, call these emeralds Peridots, which is the name they give to a bright green kind of stone, not very hard, found in Arabia, Persia, and India, the crystallisations of which have not yet been determined. I shall take this opportunity of observing, that in the British Museum there is a beautiful groupe of hexagonal smaragdine columns in quartz, which was procured from South America. Dutens, mentioned in the beginning of this note, the son of a jeweller in London, went to Turin as chaplain to the English ambassador at that court. He spoke exceedingly good French; because his father was a French refugee, and because he had himself resided a long time at Paris. F.