lear to the eye of the expert, though not to the
untrained eye, unless the stone is palpably spurious. To one who is
accustomed to the examination of precious stones, however perfect the
imitation, it is but necessary to place it beside or amongst one or more
real ones for the false to be almost instantly identified, and that with
certainty.

_The Sapphire._

The Sapphire is not so easy to imitate, as its hardness exceeds that of
the ruby, and imitations containing its known constituents, or of glass,
are invariably softer than the natural stone. As before remarked, almost
any form of corundum other than red is, broadly, called sapphire, but
giving them their strictly correct designations, we have the olivine
corundum, called "chrysolite" (oriental), which is harder than the
ordinary or "noble" chrysolite, sometimes called the "peridot." The
various yellow varieties of corundum take the name of the "oriental
topaz," which, like most, if not all, the corundum varieties, is harder
than the gem which bears the same name, minus the prefix "oriental."
Then we have the "amethyst" sapphire, which varies from a red to a blue
purple, being richer in colour than the ordinary amethyst, which is a
form of violet-coloured quartz, but the corundum variety, which, like
its companions, is called the "oriental" amethyst, is both rarer and
more precious. A very rare and extremely beautiful green variety is
called the oriental emerald. The oriental jacinth, or hyacinth, is a
brown-red corundum, which is more stable than the ordinary hyacinth,
this latter being a form of zircon; it changes colour on exposure to
light, which colour is not restored by subsequent retention in darkness.

The blue sapphire is of all shades of blue, from cornflower blue to the
very palest tints of this colour, all the gradations from light to dark
purple blues, and, in fact, so many shades of tone and colour that they
become almost as numerous as the stones. These stones are usually found
in similar situations to those which produce the ruby, and often along
with them. The lighter colours are usually called females, or feminine
stones, whilst the darker ones are called masculine stones. Some of
these dark ones are so deep as to be almost black, when they are called
"ink" sapphires, and if inclining to blue, "indigo" sapphires, in
contradistinction to which the palest of the stones are called "water"
sapphires. The colouring matter is not always even, but is