GARNET.
Hung-sha, . . . Granati, Carbunculus,LAT.
Grenat, FR Yakut ? . . . MALA.r. ? Granat-stein, . . . GER. Sang-i-mabtab„ . PERS. ? Granaten, . . . . „ Granatnoi-kamen, . Rus.
Tambra, . . . HiNn. Granadas, . . . . SP.
Granate, IT Garnet is a word supposed to be derived from the Grenatici specified by Marhodus, the red hya cinths of the Romans. There are many varieties, —Almandine or noble garnet ; grossular garnet ; cinnamon stone, essonite, hessonite, or kaneel stone ; romanzonite, and hyacinth ; common lime garnet ; mag,nesia garnet ; iron garnets ; common iron garnet ; rothoffite, alloclorite ; melanite, pyreneite ; colophonite ; uwarorite ; pyrope, almandine, hexahedral garnet ; helvine or tetra hedral garnet ; and idocrase or pyramidal garnet. The Alabandic carbuncles of Pliny were so called because they were cut and polished at Alabanda. The dear deep-red garnets make a rich stone, and are much used for ornament. They are cut quite thin on account of their deep colour. It is this thin stone which is now termed the carbuncle. Among the Burmese the most beautiful come from Sirian, the chief tawn of Pegu. Garnets of very good quality occur Nellore, Masulipatam, and Bezwarrah.
The red variety of the gem is very generally diffused over India. Its geognostic position is the hypogenic or metamorphic schists near their line of junction with plutonic rocks or trap dykes ; for instance, in the crystalline and metalliferous areas of Salem and Nellore, whence the finest crystals are procured, and sold by the native merchants at an insignificant price. Colophonite is not uncommon in these tracts, as also in Mysore, the Neilgherries, the Karnatic, and other provinces of Southern India. It usually occurs in the granite, associated with the hypogene schists. Cinnamon stone or essonite was discovered by Dr. Benza in the Neilgherries in the hypogene horn blende rock, near the Seven Cairns Hill, where entire portions of the rock are formed alrnost ex clusively of them, the essonite and hornblende in large separate crystals, embedded in a paste of compact felspar and hornblende ; the former is very liable to disintegrate, leaving, in falling out, small cavities in the rock. Green garnet is of rare occurrence. Newbold discovered this in the Salem district at Sankerydrug, lat. 11° 29' N.,
long. 77° 58' E., associated with other green crystals in quartz veins, penetrating hornblende schist, associated with gneiss, garnet rock, actino litic schist, and altered limestone, thrown into disorder by the intrusion of a porphyritic granite. A mine of precious garnet occurs at Gharilpet, about 8 miles S. of Palunshah, in the Hyderabad country, in the detritus of a granitic rock, pene trated by trap dykes, and composed of mica, garnets, kyanite, quartz, and felspar. Dr. Voysey states that the precious garnets are found there at the depth of eight or ten feet in the alluvium at the foot of the rock. He found the surface of the rock and soil strewed with garnets in great profu sion, but these were generally of a very coarse kind. The garnets when collected are gently pounded, and the bad ones broken ; those which survive the blows are reckoned of good quality. In a river near the Munzerabad ghat in Mysore, the natives search for garnets, which are sold at one rupee each. They occur there as deposits from a hill of mica schist which occurs higher up the river, which Captain R. Roberts of the Engineers followed up.
The garnets of China are found in the Lu-shan mountain in Kiang-si, not far from Kia-king.
There are three distinct kinds of ruby garnets sold in Madras,-1. Subramaniam ravakalu, the best, obtained from a village of that name in the Madura district ; 2. Badrachellum ravakalu, second in quality, obtained from Badrachellum on the river Godavery ; 3. Kondapilly ravakalu, obtained in the neighbourhood of Kondapilly, Bezwara, Toley, Kistna district. Bezwara garnets sent to England realize in the market £.8 a, ton, and Mr. Bowden thinks they are used as a substitute for emery. In Southern India they are almost univer sally employed by the cutler, the stone-niason, and others, as a substitute for emery, under which name the coarser garnets are sold in the bazars. In the scale of hardness, the garnet is 6-5 to 7.5. Garnets are of various colours, a circumstance due to the varying proportions and combinations of the three or four silicates of alumina, lime, iron, and magnesia, of which they are composed.— Madras Museum Report ; King ; ItlacCulloch's Comm. Dict.; Voysey; Newbold ; Helfer ; Mason ; t; Eng. Cyc,i Iliad. Ex. Jur. Report.