Page:Transactions of the Geological Society, 1st series, vol. 3.djvu/113

 Phrygia, as well as in some of the Greek islands: it is supposed to be the variety known to statuaries by the name of marmo Greco, and some ancient statues are described as being formed of this marble. It is possible that specimens of it may exist in the British Museum, but our sculptors are, as far as I know, incapable of distinguishing it at present, and it is much too hazardous to assign the place of a particular specimen from the contemplation of a polished and often of a stained surface. Mr. Tennant has found that the marmo Greco is a magnesian limestone.

I am equally unable to point out specimens of that variety known to the Italians by the name of marmo statuario, of which the quarries are also lost, but which, with greater translucency of surface, resembles the Parian marble in the largeness of its grain, unless those which I have conjectured to belong to this variety, when describing the specimens of sculpture in Parian, do in fact appertain to the latter.

The quarries of Luna produce a compact white marble susceptible of a high polish, and capable of being wrought with the most minute accuracy. Hence it is preferable for the finer operations of bas relief, either to the Parian, of which the aspect interferes with the delicacy of finish and of surface required in these works, or to the Pentelic, which was subject to accidents from veins of mica and of serpentine, or to that of Carrara, in which dark veins are of frequent occurrence. It was accordingly preferred by the antients, and among many other works, the Apollo (Belvedere) is said to have been executed in Luna marble. We have no other knowledge of the marbles of Hymettus and of Arabia than their names.

Of all the marbles employed in the works of the antients, and of which many specimens have descended to our days, that of