es of Parliament. London,
1855, p. 917. ]

[Footnote 348: Graphite must be found in great abundance on the
Asiatic side of Behring's Straits. I procured during winter a number
of pieces, which had evidently been rolled in running water.
Chamisso mentions in Kotzebue's Voyages (iii. p. 169) that he had
seen this mineral along with red ochre among the inhabitants at St.
Lawrence Bay; and Lieut Hooper states in his work (p. 139), that
graphite and red ochre are found at the village Oongwysac between
Chukotskoj-nos and Behring's Straits. The latter colour was sold at
a high price to the inhabitants of distant encampments. These
minerals have undoubtedly been used in the same way from time
immemorial, and they are probably, like flint and nephrite, among
the few kinds of stone which were used by the men of the Stone Age.
So far as is known, graphite come first into use in Europe during
the middle ages. A black-lead pencil is mentioned and delineated for
the first time by Conrad Gessner in 1565. The rich but now exhausted
graphite seam at Borrowdale, in England, is mentioned for the first
time by Dr. Merret in 1667, as containing a useful mineral peculiar
to England. Very rich graphite seams have been found during recent
decades, both at the mouth of the Yenisej (Sidoroff's graphite
quarry) and at a spur of the Sayan mountains in the southern part of
Siberia (Alibert's graphite quarry), and these discoveries have
played a certain _role_ in the recent history of the exploration of
the country. ]

[Footnote 349: Nephrite is a light green, sometimes grass-green, very
hard and compact species of amphibolite, which occurs in High Asia,
Mexico, and New Zealand. At all these places it has been employed
for stone implements, vases, pipes, &c. The Chinese put an immensely
high value upon it, and the wish to procure nephite is said often to
have determined their politics, to have caused wars, and impressed
its stamp on treaties of peace concluded between millions. I also
consider it probable that the precious Vasa Murrhina, which was
brought to Rome after the campaign against Mithridates, and has
given rise to so much discussion, was nephrite. Nephrite was also
perhaps the first of all stones to be used ornamentally. For we find
axes and chisels of this material among the people of the Stone Age
both in Europe (where no locality is known where unworked nephrite
is found) and in Asia, America, and New Zealand. In Asia implements
of