Page:Philosophical Transactions - Volume 002.djvu/29

 For Rubies, he discourses also of the Places, where they are found; and of their Price. The Places, are, the Kingdom of Pegu, and the Isle of Ceylon; whence very few are suffered to be carried away. The Price is, that a good Rubi of the weight of 1 Rati (which is ⅞ of a Carat) is esteemed at 20 old Pagodes in India, each Pagode being about 10 shillings English.

Concerning Turquois, they are found in Persia, in the Province of Chamoquay, North of Ispaban, in two Mines, called the Old and the New Rock. These of the New, are of an ill whitish Blew; but those of the old, are not suffered to be digged out, but by the King of Persia himself.

Emeraulds are affirm'd by him, never to be found in the East-Indies, but in Perou, whence they were carried by that Trading People to the Moluccas, even before America was discovered by the Europeans; and so they come from the Orient; of much less value, than they were formerly, by reason of their commonness. The Author notes, that Emeraulds grow in stones, just as Chrystals, forming a Vein, in which they are by little and little refined and thickned: and that some of them are seen, half white and half green; others, all white; and others all green and perfect.

To Pearls he assigns in the Orient, four places, where they are fished: The Isle of Baharem in the Persian Gulf: The Coast of Arabia Felix, near the Town of Catif, over against Baharem: The Isle of Ceylon about Manar: The Isle of Japan. The best at Ceylon, but small; the biggest Japan, but uneven. In the West-Indies they are fish'd in the North-Sea, in the Illes of Marguerite, Cubagva, St. Marthe; and at Comana, and Comanagote, near the Continent; and in the South-Sea, near Panama: which American