Page:The Geologist, volume 5.djvu/181

Rh out? The beryl, with sky-blue and green emeralds, is found too in the Cordillera of Cubellan. It is often said that Peru is rich in emeralds, but Mr. Bollaert says that this should rather be said of Equador, as he has never known that gem to have been found in the former country. As the eleventh Inca, who died about 1475, commenced inroads on Quito, his son Huagna Capac conquering the country, Mr. Bollaert thinks this was the period at which the Peruvians became acquainted with the emerald. Parisite, a brownish-yellow crystal, composed of carbonate of lanthanium and didymium, with fluoride of calcium, is also found in the emerald-mines of Muzo.

We know nothing as to the process the natives of Quito or Peru have for cutting, boring, or polishing precious stones; they may have had hardened copper or brass instruments, and something approaching the drill, for the regal emerald had holes drilled through it to keep it fast on the head. Wallace, in his 'Travels on the Amazon' (1853, p. 278), in his account of the Uaupés Indians, speaks of seeing "several men with the most peculiar and valued ornament—a cylindrical, opaque, white stone, which is quartz imperfectly crystallized. These stones are from four to eight inches long, and about an inch in diameter. They are ground round, and flat at the ends,—a work of great labour,—and are each pierced with a hole at one end, through which a string is placed to suspend it round the neck. It appears almost incredible that they should make this hole in so hard a substance without any iron instrument for the purpose. What they are said to use is the pointed flexible leaf-shoot of the large wild plaintain, triturating (twirling with the hands) with fine sand and a little water; and thus no doubt it is, as it is said to be, a labour of years. Yet it must take a much longer time to pierce that which the Tushua (chief) wears as the symbol of his authority, for it is generally of the largest size, and is worn transversely across the breast, for which purpose the hole is bored lengthways from one end to the other, an operation which it is said sometimes occupies two lives. The stones themselves are procured from a great distance up the river, probably from near its source at the base of the Andes; they are therefore highly valued, and it is seldom the owners can be induced to part with them, the chiefs scarcely ever."

In Wilkes's 'American Exploring Expedition,' it is stated that, "on Bowditch Island, in the Pacific, the hand-drill is used, pointed with hard stone, for drilling shells." "Could such an adaptation," Mr. Bollaert asks, "have been employed by the emerald-drillers of Mexico, Bogotá, and Quito?"

When Mr. Bollaert gossips about the Incas and the old Peruvians, it is hard not to digress, the subject is so enchanting; but we draw the bonds of our speciality closer and resolutely resist. And that we may not be allured, we bridge over this part with a string of the Captain Cuttle sort of extracts.

"There was some quillay or iron-ore particularly at Cuancha; but it was not smelted by the Indians, that being too serious an operation for them. Gold and silver were merely melted, but the chloride and sulphuret of silver, by the aid of fire and air, could be reduced by them."

"In vol. i. 'Mercurio Peruano,' p. 201, 1791, the following mines are mentioned as having been worked by the Incas:—Escaméra, Chilleo, and Abatantis, of gold; Choquiniñá and Porco, of silver; Curahato, of copper; Carabuco, of lead (probably the vicinity of Oruro yielded tin); and the magnificent iron-works (!) of Ancoriames, on the east margin of Lake Titicaca, are particularized."

"Cope, a mineral pitch, is found near Point S. Elena, and Amotape,