CHRYSOLITE, the name given by the moderns to a gem, which was called the topaz by the ancients. All the modern jewellers, and those of several ages before them, have agreed in calling this gem the chrysolite: and the true chrysolite of the ancients, which had its name from its fine gold yellow colour, they now universally call the topaz.
The chrysolite of our times, the topaz of the ancients, is, even in its most pure and perfect state, a gem of but small beauty, and little value. It is found of various sizes, and some of the coarser pieces of it are vastly larger than those of any of the other gems are ever found to be: its most frequent size, however, when perfect, is about the size of a nutmeg. It is found of very various figures, but never columnar, or in the form of crystal: it is in some places found small, or in irregular pebble-like masses; in others, generally oblong and flattened; and is always of a rude surface, and less bright than any of the other gems. Its colour is a dead green, with a faint admixture of a pale yellow. It has these different tinges, in the several specimens, in different degrees of mixture; but its most usual colour is that of an unripe olive with somewhat of a brassy colour mixed with it; and sometimes it is of a pale and dusky green, obscured by a mixture of brown, and with a slight cast of the same brassy yellow. It is much softer than any of the pelucid gems; its finest pieces do not exceed crystal in hardness, and its coarser are greatly softer: it takes a good polish, however; and, in some of its finer specimens, makes a tolerable appearance, though greatly inferior to the other gems. Our jewellers take very
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little notice of it; and instead of having two or three names for it, as they have for most of the other gems, they call it very often a prasius, and the less accurate among them often call the chrysoprasus a chrysolite. This stone is found in New Spain, and also in several parts of Europe, as in Silesia, Bohemia, &c. The American chrysolites, however, are greatly superior to the European; but they are usually small: the Bohemian are large, but very few of them are of a good colour, or free from flaws.