a pellucid gem, which, in its finest state, is extremely beautiful and valuable, and second only to the diamond in lustre, hardness, and price. Its proper colour is a pure blue; in the finest specimens it is of the deepest azure, and in others varies into paleness in shades of all degrees between that and a pure crystal brightness and water, without the least tinge of colour, but with a luster much superior to the crystal. They are distinguished into four sorts, viz. the blue sapphire, the white sapphire, the water sapphire, and the milk sapphire.

The gum known to us by this name is extremely different from the sapphire of the ancients, which was only a semi-opaque stone, of a deep blue, veined with white, and spotted with small gold-coloured spangles, in the form of stars, and was only a more beautiful kind kind of the lapis lazuli—but our sapphire they have described under the name of beryllus aerides; or the sky-blue beryl.

The finest sapphires in the world are brought from the kingdom of Pegu, in the East-Indies; where some are found perfectly colourless, and others of all the shades of blue; these are all found in the pebble-form. We have very fine sapphires also, partly pebble, partly crystal-shaped, from Bishnagar, Cononar, Calicut, and the island of Ceylon: these also are of all the shades of blue. And in Ceylon there are sometimes found a sort of bastard gems, of a mixed nature between the sapphire and ruby. The occidental are from Silecia, Bohemia, and many other parts of Europe; but though these are often very beautiful stones, they are greatly inferior, both in lustre and hardness, to the oriental.