SAPPHIRE.
Sufir, . . . ARAB., Sw. Sapphirus, . . . LAT.
SaptliT . DAN., FR. Stifira, . . . . PORT.
. .
Safherstan, . . DOT. Jachant, Sapfir, . Rug.
Sapphir, . . . . GER. Nil; SINGH.
NilaM,BIND,MALAY.,TAM- SafiTO, SafiT, . . SP.
Zaffiro, . . . Sr.
Cortmdum, if translucent, when red is the oriental ruby, when bine a sapphire, when green it is the oriental emerald, and when yellow a topaz. Sapphire is usually dark-blue, but also occasionally colourless, and the green variety of corundum is the rarest of all gems. But Sapphirus with the ancients was a generic term for all blue gems. It was on sapphirns tablets that the Ten Commandments were engraved. In the arts, other minerals are also styled sapphire, the names being dependent on their colours. Chemically, sapphire is 92 per cent. of a pure alumina ; it occurs in six-sided prisms, often with uneven surfaces ; it also occurs granular. When thc surface is polished, a star of six rays corresponding with the hexa gonal form, is in some specimens seen within the crystal.
Corundum, sapphire, ruby, emerald, and topaz are found in great abundance in the Peninsula of India, but not with sufficient translucence to be valuable as precious stones. At the Madras 'Exhibition some small fraginents of sapphire and of apinel, with the matrix in which it occurs, were exhibited front Masulipatani. Sapphires, in colour, vary to the deepest blue and black, and stones are often of varied hues. If held in water with forceps, these coloured and uncoloured stones will be seen. A very good blue aapphire of one carat weight would bring 120.
Occasionally very valuable stones are met with, but the great bulk are of cotnparatively little worth, the larger among them being generally full of flaws. Sapphires of good quality are also found in the same beds in the proportion, it is said, of one sapphire to about hOU or 600 rubies. In an appendix to Yule's Ava (published 1857), 3Ir. Oldham, superintendent of the Geological
Survey of India, estimated the value of the gems found in these mines, rubies and sapphires, about 115,000 per annum. The mines are considered the sole property of the king, who maintains a atzict monopoly of them, and employs his own lapidaries to polish and prepare the best of the stones.
S.Ipphires have been discovered in the territory of the maharaja of Ka.slimir.
Sapphire occurs in Ceylon in dolomite. A piece dug out of the alluvium near Ratnapura, in 1853, WRS valued at 14000. In Burma, sapphires are found in the seine earth with rubies, but are much more rare, and are generally of a larger size. Sapphires of 10 or 15 rati without a flaw are common, whereas a perfect ruby of that size is hardly ever seen. The value of the gems, rubies, and sapphires obtained in a year may be from 11 to laklis. A Karen informed Dr. Helfer that precious blue stones are to be had, which the Shan people collect and carry to Bangkok. Ile described the place as eight days' distant. Some valuable sapphire mines were dis covered in 1878 in the Siam provinces of Chantaboon and Battambong, and throughout 1879, thousands of British subjects went from Burma to the mines. One sapphire was offered for sale at Chantaboon for Rs. 1000. The owner finally sold it in Cal cutta for Rs.3000. The largest which the Govern ment has yet heard of weighed 370 carats in the rough, and 111 camts when cut, The mines ate said to be very unhealthy. In Mr. Hope's collec tion is a blue sapphire which cost £3000. A valuable sapphire of 133 carats, now in the Museum of Natural History at Paris, is said to have come from Bengal. It was sold for £6800. Lady Burdett Coutts had two of them, valued at £30,000.—Eimaanitel; Tomlinson ; 3Mson. See Precious Stones.