Chapter XXX: British Pebbles

BY THE REV. A. N. MALAN, M.A., F.G.S.

I.--THE PEBBLES AND HOW TO FIND THEM.

An endless variety of delights can be enjoyed by the sea. Bathing, boating, fishing, paddling, building sand-castles and forts, engineering experiments in canals and ponds, prawning, shrimping, collecting shells, anemones, and seaweeds, sailing toy-boats, cricket and tennis on the sands. Well, now, you boys who love the pleasures of the seaside, my purpose here is to introduce a new attraction to your notice. The amusement we are going to bring before you possesses more solid and lasting attractions. What say you to PEBBLE-HUNTING as a seaside recreation?

Pebble-hunting is a resource calculated to excite high enthusiasm. It brings us into familiarity with some of the most beautiful objects in Nature. Pebbles can be obtained free of expense. Nature’s inexhaustible treasure-house is always open. She invites you to approach and help yourself at will. She offers with unstinting hand stones of imperishable beauty. It is ungracious to scorn her liberality.

We propose, then, to give particulars of British pebbles--how to recognise those worth collecting, where to look for them, and how to cut and polish them for yourselves. No writer for boys, so far as I know, has ever yet given practical instructions about cutting and polishing stones. The best pebble unpolished looks dull and dead. The polishing brings out its beauty and makes it a lasting treasure. The polishing is nothing else than _rubbing the pebble smooth_. A flint pebble is so hard that when rubbed perfectly smooth it reflects light just as glass and water do. Nothing is put on to make the surface shine, as in polishing wood. The pebble is merely _rubbed smooth_; and when this is done, the surface proves to be so hard that no instrument of the hardest steel, not even a file, will produce upon it the faintest scratch. I am speaking of flint-pebbles or agates, which are to be found upon many beaches.

The first difficulty is, _how to recognise the good pebbles_, as they lie amid the countless host of less interesting stones. I often hear the question, ‘Can you tell what a pebble will be like inside before you cut it?’ The answer is ‘Yes’ and ‘No.’ I can tell so far that I should not labour at cutting and polishing an obviously worthless stone; but, alas! often a stone which gives good promise on the outside proves uninteresting when cut, and so is laid aside on the shelf as an example of unrequited toil not worth any further trouble. This is inevitable. But, far from being a discouragement, such disappointments only serve to stimulate the zeal and sharpen the faculties in discriminating the real prizes.

We must not start with an idea of finding gems upon our beaches. These exquisite objects are exotics, natives principally of dark mines and sunny strands in the far East. The diamond, sapphire, ruby, topaz, peridot, emerald, beryl, tourmaline, turquois, chrysolite, garnet, and precious opal, are not for us. The magnificent agates of India and Brazil are familiar to us when artificially stained and manufactured into bracelets, brooches, penholders, &c., and exhibited in the jewellers’ shops. Splendid specimens in their natural tints may be seen cut and polished in the Geological Museum, Jermyn Street, in the Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, and elsewhere. But we shall never find such stones on our own beaches.

Oriental and Brazilian pebbles are not unfrequently palmed off upon innocent and unsuspecting visitors as the genuine products of some favoured beach within her Majesty’s British Dominions. A lady once told me that she picked up in a week a quantity of splendid onyxes at a watering-place--let us call it Rocksands--and had them ground and polished into a necklace of beads. Another showed me a beautiful brown onyx, set in gold, which she found (?) in the same neighbourhood. A third assured me that a friend of hers had picked up amethysts and topazes on the same beach. This was at the time when I first began to take an interest in pebbles. The summer holidays were approaching. My portmanteau was packed; I was off to Rocksands.

The long journey was at last accomplished, and the omnibus set me down at the Royal Hotel; when three steps and a jump landed me upon the famous beach. It was crowded with persons of both sexes and all ages. I never saw so many backs bending at one time for the same purpose. They carried baskets, which gradually groaned under the weight of minerals amassed. For three days I joined the glad throng, comparing notes with many treasure-seekers, and collected some hundred and fifty stones possessing better pretensions to celebrity than the obviously worthless specimens.

I took them to one of the lapidary establishments. They are so kind at Rocksands in looking over visitors’ findings and pronouncing upon their merits. The lapidary establishment was crowded. At last my turn came. With beating heart I displayed my beach upon the counter. ‘Oh yes; that’s a fine red carnelian; that’s an onyx, that’s a topaz; that’s a mocha stone; that’s a weed-agate. If you’ll come on Saturday they shall be ready.’

I came, and received some beautiful foreign agates, cut and polished ready for brooches, such as are imported wholesale from Germany, where they work the lapidary-wheels by water-power, and prepare the foreign stones at small cost. At any seaside place, in the attractive shops on the esplanade, you can buy for a shilling a magnificent onyx or agate brooch. It cost me from two shillings to half-a-crown each to have my Rocksands treasures cut and polished! And what were the stones which I actually took to the lapidary? Nothing else than absolute rubbish--pebbles of coarse quartz, slate, and porphyry!

Some years after this a gentleman living at Rocksands collected a number of stones, principally ‘amethysts and carnelians,’ as he was told. He forwarded me two of his finest specimens. They were pebbles of inferior quartz, but I cut and polished them to convince him, and his eyes were opened to the truth. Another forwarded me a stone which had been in his possession for years, prized and habitually shown to friends as most valuable. I wrote back, ‘You found that stone at Rocksands, and were told that it was an amethyst. It is not worth stooping to pick up!’ He replied that I was correct in the locality, but asked me to cut and polish it, notwithstanding the unflattering verdict. I did so, and his eyes were likewise opened. Lapidaries are not, as a class, unprincipled, but some of them seem to find it hard to resist the temptation of imposing upon the simplicity of the public.

A few words about the topaz and amethyst. They belong to the magnificent sapphire group, very precious and exquisite crystals of alumina. Never by any possibility will such stones be found upon our beaches, unless some eccentric person sows them. They are Oriental gems, and I believe they have never been found in England. But there are crystals of quartz (pure flint) which closely resemble in colour and transparency the true topaz and amethyst. Such crystals are found on a large scale in cavities of rocks and mountains--_e.g._, in the ‘druses’ of the Alps. There are splendid crystals of smoky-brown and straw-coloured quartz found in the Grampian Mountains, known as ‘cairn-gorms.’ Now there is no reason why fragments of such crystals should not be found upon a beach rounded into pebbles, but I do not believe they have ever actually been found in England. A letter in a London daily paper some time ago stated that such amethysts were common in some parts of Ireland. It would be more correct to speak of them as pebbles of amethystine quartz. I have some good specimens of Irish amethysts from the Island of Achill. The so-called amethysts of Rocksands have no pretensions even to transparency.

If I were to tell you that in Cornwall they mend the roads with amethysts you might smile. But it is not so very far from the truth. I have a piece of granite picked up on a new-laid Cornish road full of beautiful crystals of amethystine quartz. The lady pebble-seekers and others might do well to travel west!

The pebbles we really do hope to find are moss-agates, ring-agates, chalcedonies, carnelians, choanites and other fossil-zoophytes, jaspers, conglomerates, shell-agates, variegated flints, and beetle-stones. There are besides large flint ‘geodes’ containing beautiful crystals of quartz, caskets of jewels from the chalk strata, but these are not suitable for cutting and polishing. It is fine exercise to go out with a stout hammer ‘flint-smashing’ under the cliffs of Beachy Head. Splendid treasures of crystal are to be found there, but they cannot be improved by artificial treatment.

Cairn-gorms are now very rare. I once made a pilgrimage into the heart of the Grampians, hoping to find some specimens, but without success. I also spent a day on the beaches of Loch Tay, having read in a mineralogical book that beautiful agates are to be obtained there, ‘in which the imaginative Highlander sees the lakes and mountains of his native land.’ There also I had no success; the nearest approach to agates that I found were fragments of old glass bottles; and I returned with the melancholy conviction that those bottles, when entire, must have contained a certain spirituous liquor dear to the heart of the ‘imaginative Highlander,’ under the influence of which his imagination was excited to set a false value upon the ‘chuckey stones’ at his feet.

A few simple definitions will assist progress. _Chalcedony_ is a form of very pure translucent flint, often also transparent, sometimes tinted with delicate shades of blue, purple, pink, orange or brown. _Choanite_ is the name given to a fossil-zoophyte of the sea-anemone class, with central funnel-shaped body (‘choanos’ is Greek for a funnel), and tentacles radiating from every part. _Moss-agate_ is the pretty name given to chalcedonic pebbles, containing moss-like ramifications in various colours--pink, blue, black, orange, red, and yellow--due to the presence of metallic oxides, and often, no doubt, to the actual colouring matter of some zoophyte round which the pebble originally formed. _Conglomerate pebbles_ contain fragments of chalcedony, flint, etc., embedded in a matrix of different character, presenting an appearance somewhat resembling almond-rock. _Translucent_, transmitting light, _but not_ the outlines or colours of objects behind it. _Transparent_, transmitting light, _and also_ the outlines and colours of objects behind the light.

Some of the best hunting-grounds for pebbles are the beaches of our south coast. Taking the map, we may notice in order Dover, Folkestone, New Romney, Dungeness, Hastings, Eastbourne, Brighton, Worthing, Bognor, Littlehampton; in the Isle of Wight--Sandown, Shanklin, and Ventnor: the Chesil Beach, Seaton, and Sidmouth. Here are plenty of shingly beaches for you to choose from, and chalcedonic pebbles are common upon them all. So let us take a ramble, it does not much matter where.

Suppose we select the Chesil Beach, the most extensive accumulation of shingle in the British Isles. There is room to breathe under the frowning heights of Portland Bill, and the sea is so grand! If you wish to be impressed with the majesty of Nature, walk on the Chesil Beach after a fresh gale from the south-west, and the grandeur of the sea will be before you in all the magnificence of its strength.

Here we are! What a wonderful sight! The sea on both sides; nine miles of terraced shingle stretching in a great curve right away west to Bridport Harbour. Millions multiplied by millions of rounded pebbles! How can we possibly find the beauties among such an infinite host? The prospect is indeed vast, almost bewildering. But we will at once circumscribe the portion of beach to be searched. The sea fortunately happens to be calm, and the tide is ebbing. We will confine our attention to the narrow strip just out of reach of the waves, which is not yet dried by the sun. It is a great advantage to hunt upon a _wet_ beach, because the colours and characters of the pebbles are more vividly shown when they are wet than when they are dry.

Now, then, keep your eyes open. You need not stoop. Walk upright, shoulders well back, head merely inclined forward, and eyes as sharp as a ferret’s. You must not get round-shouldered by pebble-hunting, or what will the drill-sergeant say? There is no necessity to stoop at all, except to pick up a stone.

See, there lies one almost transparent. You could not help noticing it. Pick it up and hold it to the light. See its pure, delicate, lustrous substance, a pale grey tint. That is chalcedony--pure flint. Look at it carefully. Now you know the kind of ‘stuff’ we are looking for. It is so clear and glassy, such a perfect oval shape, that it seems a shame to pitch it into the sea. Yet we cannot afford to keep it, for if we once began putting the clear chalcedonies into the bag, it would be filled in a hundred yards.

‘But why,’ you ask, ‘if this is a chalcedony, pure and perfect, must we throw it away?’ Because it is _too perfect_! It would merely resemble dull glass if cut and polished. There is no _incidental beauty_ about it, no variety of colour and texture, no trace of any animal organism in it. It is too pure. We want the same article adulterated, so to speak, by Nature’s handicraft. We want to find the same substance containing some exquisite workmanship. We want to find such a pebble with some ‘fruit’ enclosed; just as a child wants the piece of jelly containing the imprisoned strawberry, and prefers that to any other portion in the dish.

Try now to find a pebble of the _same character_ with traces of colouring and marking. How beautiful the wet pebbles are! All colours--brown, red, yellow, orange, pale blue, pink, purple, black, white; any colour except green; that is the rarest of all.

Now here is a pebble, part of chalcedony, part of baser flint; the chalcedony tinted red and orange. Look closely into it. Notice those ‘feelers’ delicately spread, like those of a sea-anemone in a pool. Notice the central body, like the eye of a daisy. You see at a glance that this is a choanite. When cut and polished this stone is certain to be a pleasing specimen. It is a good shape; the choanite is so well displayed; there are no serious cracks or flaws in the stone. Those are the points in deciding upon the merits of choanites.

We might make either a cross-section or longitudinal section of it, or polish it all over. However we treat it, it is sure to prove an attractive specimen. Notice that portion where the feelers have disappeared, decomposed, it would seem, during the process of ‘silicification,’ or conversion into flint. The _débris_ of the feelers has become ‘moss,’ and the beautiful tints are probably due to the actual colouring of the creature itself. They are too delicate for iron oxides.

Now let us look again. No; that is merely a common flint variegated with stains of iron. No; that one is no use; nothing organic in it. No, nor that either. Oh! you must not be discouraged; Rome was not built in a day. The excitement of hope, the expectation of finding beautiful treasures, should prevent your getting weary of search, and it will when you have found a few really good stones.

Your eyes will soon be trained to detect the prizes. It merely wants a little practice and patience, and, when the knowledge is attained, what a new world is opened up! Amid the crowd of loungers bending over every pool and rock, poking with the aimless end of an umbrella or walking-stick, picking up occasionally a bit of seaweed or a shell, you pass along unnoticed, and under their very eyes you pounce upon a real treasure--aye, and actually valuable. I was offered ten shillings the other day by a professional lapidary for a stone I found, just as it was picked up. Even if some days may prove unprofitable, still the enthusiasm of hope will buoy you up. The trout-fisher never despairs, though sometimes he returns home with creel almost empty.

There, now! You have found a genuine moss-agate. Let us sit down and examine it closely. Notice that half of the stone is coarse muddy flint, but the other half is chalcedony of a red-purple tint. See these indications of ‘moss,’ black and orange, of beautiful and delicate texture, floating in the chalcedony. Wet the pebble again to make its beauty more vivid. Look hard at it. Look into its translucent depths. Get familiar with that ‘solidified jelly,’ for when you thoroughly understand its appearance you have the key to the whole beach. The chalcedonic pebbles, when decorated with coloured markings, are called ‘agates.’ If they contain moss-like markings, they are moss-agates.

Often in a moss-agate we find evident remains of tentacles, proving that when the pebble was born it contained some zoophyte or sea anemone kind of creature, which in the process of silicification was decomposed. The substance of these agates must once have been a semi-fluent jelly like thick syrup. Perhaps the silicon was plentifully dissolved in the sea water; we cannot tell. It is a mystery of science not yet explained, therefore look with reverence upon this stone. You hold in your hand one of God’s secrets. Look at the choanite again which we found just now. That creature once lived, so frail as almost to melt in the sun when left, perhaps, on the rocks by the ebbing tide. And God has caused it to be caught in the embrace of adamantine flint, to rescue it from dissolution, and preserve it as an object of immortal beauty. The wonderful, unspeakable transformation was enacted in the waters of ocean far back in unknown ages, and the only clue to its mystery lies in that verse of the Psalm: ‘Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did He in the earth, and in the sea, and in all deep places.’

Choanites always seem to me to speak eloquently of a Resurrection to a glorious state after death. I think of them living their humble life in ages before man appeared on this earth, clinging to rocks in unknown seas, waving their delicate arms with the movement of the waves, gathering the food brought within their reach by the beneficent hand of Him who takes thought for the meanest of His creatures. Nothing could seem less probable, than that these frail creatures should be preserved from destruction in death. God teaches us by them that He who has the power of life and death can stay the progress of corruption in the frailest bodies. They rise, as it were, from the dead after thousands of years, clothed in greater beauty and interest than they ever possessed in life. We should, perhaps, have shrunk from touching them when alive, but as found in their caskets of purest flint they are ‘laid with fair colours,’ and form objects of exquisite beauty. Thus we see them emerge from the grave in glorified form after a death of centuries. God, who ministered to their wants in life, also brought it about that their fragile bodies should not see corruption. He has given them immortal beauty, and by them He teaches us that He is able to deal in like manner with our own perishable bodies. Sown in corruption, they shall be raised in incorruption: sown in dishonour, they shall be raised in glory.

* * * * *

CHOANITES AND MOSS-AGATES! If you only have patience and perseverance, you are sure to find specimens every time you take a good ramble along a shingly beach that has any likelihood of treasure. Some, of course, will be better than others. Experience will make you fastidious in taste. You will reject those that seem inferior in shape, or damaged and imperfect. Practice will soon teach you. Take your pebbles to a lapidary, if there is one in the town. Weymouth, unfortunately, does not boast one; but there are some at Brighton, I believe, and Hastings. At Worthing there is Mr. Dowsett, opposite the pier; at Eastbourne there is Mr. Hollobon, who has made one of the most magnificent collections of pebbles to be seen anywhere in England, all found, cut, and polished by himself during twenty-five years of labour and research. At Sidmouth there are three lapidaries. At Ventnor there is Mr. Billings, to whom, I think, the palm must be assigned as the most enterprising and skilful of the fraternity.

Take your stones, whenever you have the opportunity, to one of these; he will tell you whether they are worth polishing, and polish one for you at a small cost, if you wish, the charge being about sixpence a square inch. And more than that, he will show you really good stones, and tell you where they were found, and encourage you, if he sees you really interested in the subject.

There are other varieties of these fossil-agates, but the popular names are not worth much. You may call them all agates, and collect specimens of every variety with a view to their intrinsic beauty; and you may try and imagine what the creatures were like, and hunt them up in books as you proceed.

Let us leave the Chesil Beach and speed in a flash of thought some six hundred miles, right away to Montrose, N.B. We cross the estuary by the ferry, and walk down towards the lighthouse. Those low rocks are basaltic, or trap. In them we find a totally different class of agates--RING-AGATES: see them sticking like plums in a cake. With hammer and chisel we can knock out as many as we please. Many prove hollow when cut, ceiled and paved with beautiful quartz-crystals. But others have the exquisite ringed formation, and the delicacy of the concentric bands is full of wonder. Among the rocks farther down the coast we can pick up numbers already separated from their rocky cavities by the disintegrating processes of sea and weather. I collected 300 in three days.

It is probable that the cavities in which they occur were formed by gases escaping when the soft rock was growing solid--just as cavities are formed in bread. Then water charged with silicious deposit filtered into the cavities. But no satisfactory explanation of the beautiful parallel banding has yet been set forth. Once more we are confronted by a Divine secret. In these cavities--deep places--the Lord did whatsoever He pleased.

II.--THE LAPIDARY’S BENCH.

The lapidary’s bench is a very simple arrangement, as can be seen from a glance at the sketch (fig. 1). There is no complicated machinery about it. All that is required is to turn a circular plate of lead or other material with mechanical advantage. For the rest, it is hard work with the coat off and the sleeves tucked up. Plenty of ‘elbow grease,’ energy, perseverance, and the determination to overcome difficulties. Therefore the art of polishing pebbles may exert a beneficial influence in strengthening the muscles and the character of a true Englishman.

My bench, as drawn on the opposite page, was made and furnished with the requisite apparatus by Mr. Moore, 1, Clerkenwell Green, E.C., at the cost of £5. Any carpenter would probably make the bench from the description we shall now give at the cost of £1; and a practical blacksmith could easily manage the metallic fittings. But if you are expert in the simple processes of carpentry you had much better get the wood and make a bench for yourself.

We will describe the bench most carefully, giving all necessary dimensions.

Floor of bench (A B C) is made of seasoned deal 1-1/2 in. thick. From A to B the length is 3 ft. 8 in. From B to C the breadth is 2 ft. Back, sides, and partition are of 3/4 in. deal. Breadth of front board (A B) is 3 in.; of back board (V C) 6 in. The legs and cross-bars are of stout deal 3 in. by 2 in. Height from A to floor of room is 3 ft. If that is too high for you stand on a stool to work, but do not make the bench any lower, because in time you will grow taller, and the bench will not. From D to floor of room 1 ft. From E to floor of room 2 ft.

The large iron wheel (W) is 1 ft. 10 in. in diameter, fixed on an iron spindle, turned with the left hand by a curved crank (H) 7 in. long, and handle (N) of any wood nicely turned and fitted comfortably for the hollow of the hand to embrace it. The strap (O) is of leather 1 in. wide, passing round the reel (G). Its ends are joined by a simple and effective method shown in Fig. 2. The strap is carefully measured to requisite length; a nail is passed through the two ends, and string wound tightly round the ends behind the nail and tied. If the strap slackens at all after much use, it can be readjusted by a piece of extra string wound tightly round.

Iron spindle (F) 1 ft. 6 in. long, with ‘lap’ (M), screw and nut (P), reel (G). Four circular laps will be required, each with its own spindle, screw, nut, and reel. The reels must be exactly the same size, so that the strap may suit them all alike. One lap is of lead, one of beech wood, one of pewter, one of deal with two layers of common felt strained over and neatly fastened with tacks on the under-side. Each lap is 10 in. in diameter, 1 in. thick at the edge, gradually sloping up to 1-1/2 in. towards centre. Spindles 1 in. square, rounded to sharp points at both ends. Reels 2 in. in diameter, of elm or box, fixed 3 in. from lower point of spindles. The laps are screwed on the spindles as shown in Fig. 1, where all measurements are given.

There is a circular hole in the floor of the bench to allow spindle and reel to pass in and out, 4 in. in diameter. The clamp (I) rises 13 in. above the floor of the bench, and is screwed into position by movable nut underneath. The movable arm (K L) is raised or lowered at will, and adjusted by screw and nut (Q). Length of arm from K to L is 7-1/2 in. A block of lignum vitæ (R) is inserted in arm. Blocks of the same wood are screwed on at S and T for the points of the spindles to work on. These points should be very sharp and only just ‘bite’ the wood, so that friction may be diminished as far as possible. When a hole is worn in the lignum vitæ the spindles can be shifted to a fresh part.

The spindle of the large iron wheel is made _round_ at D, Fig. 3, where it works in the floor of the bench. That hole should be lined with soft leather, fitting the spindle like a glove, and kept well oiled. An iron plate (A) keeps the spindle in position. The spindle is, of course, _square_ where the crank grips it at B, and a nut (C) screwed tight keeps the crank in position.

The legs of the bench are let into sleepers (X Y, Fig. 1), screwed firmly to the floor of the room, and clamps at C and elsewhere screwed to the wall of the room may give additional rigidity. The bench must stand true and fast, so that there may be no oscillation during work. It should be placed in front of a window, as plenty of light is desirable.

The following requisites must now be procured. Seven pounds of emery ‘46-hole’; some fine sifted silver sand; some rottenstone in lumps--the hardest is best; some putty powder. Then you will want a housemaid’s blacklead brush, a nail brush with handle, a brush used for cleaning silver plate. These should be old and nearly worn-out. A large earthenware vessel for water to stand on a stool or table at the right side of the bench within easy reach, and three jampots for water. You see that the furniture is of the humblest description.

All being now ready, we may hope to commence operations in polishing a pebble.

III.--HOW TO POLISH A PEBBLE.

There are three distinct processes in polishing a pebble--grinding, smoothing, and facing. Let us take this pebble, a choanite, of a kind which I found at Sandown, Isle of Wight, and which I polished in the first of the only four lessons I ever had. It is a beautiful little rounded choanite, rather flattened on the upper and under surfaces. It is too small to be held comfortably between the thumb and two first fingers. We must therefore fix it upon a cement-stick. So we must manufacture some cement as follows. Here is the recipe:--

1 lb. of pitch, 1/2 lb. of resin, 1/4 lb. of shellac, 1 oz. of beeswax, must be broken up and put into a good-sized saucepan. Begin boiling the mixture upon a fire, and as it boils add gradually 1-1/2 lb. of Spanish brown, stirring all the while until all the ingredients are thoroughly mixed. Pour the contents of the saucepan upon the stone flags of the kitchen floor, or any pavement, in portions a foot in diameter. When cold remove the cement by a kitchen knife inserted underneath. Make some pieces of wood 4 in. long according to the shape in Fig. 4, and melt on them a portion of cement as shown at B. A nail driven into the wood at A and C will strengthen the cement. Fashion the cement into shape with the fingers well wetted. Warm the stone, and again melt the cement over a candle. Apply it to the stone, and work it on with the fingers. Be sure you have the stone firmly fixed. To test it, plunge the stone and stick into water, and when it is cool see if you can pull the stone off. The diagrams in Fig. 5 show the phases of cementing a stone. If the stone is insecure, pull it off, and warm and melt up again. Practice makes perfect.

The first stage is that of GRINDING. Set up the _lead_ lap as shown in the drawing of the bench (Fig. 1). Put a heap of emery in the left corner of the right compartment (J). Put a jam-pot of water at Z. Take the old blacklead brush, dip it in water, mix up some emery with it into a paste; wet the lap; brush it well over with emery. Take your cemented stone in the right hand, between the thumb and two first fingers; turn the handle N slowly from right to left, and as the lap revolves press the stone upon it. Grind away, understanding that you want to grind down all irregularities on the surface of the pebble. Try and throw the weight of the body through the right arm and wrist into the pebble. Emery is harder than flint. The pressure forces the emery into the lead lap, and so its surface is converted into a powerful rasp. Pause at intervals to brush fresh emery over the wheel. ‘Don’t spare your emery!’ was an exhortation I often heard when receiving my lesson. Do not attempt to do the whole surface of the pebble at once. Begin at a corner and finish it fairly, and so pass on to adjacent parts. Work towards the _centre_ of the lap when grinding _round_ surfaces, and keep the flat margin of the lap for flat stones.

Ah, your right hand begins to ache as it never ached before! You must not mind. Rest a while, and then at it again! You are bringing muscles into play which are unaccustomed to the work, and the strain will be felt until the muscles are strengthened by the exercise. Keep washing the pebble at intervals with the nail brush in the earthen vessel to see how the work progresses.

The surface of the pebble where you have been working now looks smooth, and the feelers of the choanite are vividly shown. Finish in the same manner the whole surface. Feel that you bring the weight of the arm--and even of the body--to play through the wrist of the right hand upon your stone. Do not forget the emery and washing, and see that you keep the surface of the stone true and free from ‘ridges’ and ‘shoulders.’

When you think the surface is sufficiently ground, then continue working on the lead _without putting on any more emery_. Continue patiently so grinding until the lap works perfectly free from grit, and the emery on it has been reduced to soft black paste. This will make the surface of your pebble much smoother. The nearer you reach perfection in this first stage the easier will be the afterwork. If you continue long enough the stone will look half polished when _dry_ before you have finished. _Dry_ the stone periodically to estimate progress, remembering that a pebble always looks polished when _wet_.

We may suppose now that you have completed the first process, so we pass on to the second.

SMOOTHING.--Lift off the strap by _raising_ the part nearest to you off the wheel, and let the strap lie loose upon it. The strap consequently falls off the reel. Unscrew Q. Raise the arm K L, which remains raised by its own weight. Lift the lead lap carefully out and put it aside. Set up the beech wood lap instead. Use another jam-pot of water at Z, and see that no emery-grit gets upon the wood lap. Dip your right hand in water and thoroughly wet the surface of the lap while it slowly revolves. Then dip the wet fingers in sifted silver-sand and rub them over the wood, and proceed as you did in the first process of grinding.

Our aim now is to _smooth_ the surface of the stone, to carry to higher perfection the work of the emery. Do not go too fast, and keep the stone and lap well wetted, otherwise the heat caused by friction will crack the surface of the stone. Many a beautiful stone has been spoilt in this way. Do not use much sand. Wash and examine the pebble as you go on. See how beautiful it is getting to look! How wonderfully the texture and organism have been brought out by the smoothing! Make the work as perfect as you can upon the wood, and continue working your pebble without putting on any sand, until the wood seems free from grit. In the last stage of this smoothing process we work the stone almost entirely on moist wood, as the sand has been reduced to powder. Wipe the stone dry, and if you are satisfied that you cannot do anything more for it on the wood, we may pass on to the third process of _facing_ the pebble.

FACING.--As before, remove the wood lap. And now we must proceed with extreme caution. We are going to set up the pewter lap. Bear in mind that ONE GRAIN OF SAND OR EMERY UPON THE PEWTER WILL RUIN YOUR WORK! The floor of the bench is covered with _débris_ of sand and emery; there is a heap of emery in the corner. How can you possibly prevent catastrophe? Care and practice will bring success. Remember the caution, and you will do your best to keep clear of disaster. First of all sweep up the emery into a heap at J, keeping it well away from the vicinity of the lap. Thoroughly wipe the handle N, the clamp I, and the arm K L--everything that could bring a speck of grit upon the pewter. Shut the window, that no wandering breeze may work mischief. Wash your hands in a bowl of clean water, and put the bowl in place of the earthen vessel. Jam-pot of clean water at Z. Now set up the pewter lap. The first thing is to ‘notch’ the surface of the lap, that it may hold the rottenstone. This is done by holding a table-knife lightly by the handle in the right hand, and letting the edge of the knife play upon the surface of the lap as you slowly turn the handle N from right to left, and then from left to right. The result of this is to set up a ‘bibbering’ movement in the knife--such as you may notice in the bow when a nervous young lady is performing upon the violin. The surface of the pewter will soon be decorated, as in Fig. 6, with markings not unlike the pattern on the case of a watch. When this is done wash the surface of the lap by dipping the fingers of the right hand in clean water. Take a lump of rottenstone, thoroughly washed and free from grit, and press it on the pewter while slowly revolving. The rottenstone is conveyed as a brown paste to the surface of the pewter.

Now scrub the pebble, cement and stick with the plate-brush in the bowl of water, until you feel certain that no speck of grit lurks in any crevice, and begin working the pebble on the pewter lap as in the other stages, putting pressure through the wrist of the right hand, and letting the weight of the arm play, so that a sort of rhythmical movement is imparted to the pressure difficult to describe, but soon understood when you see a lapidary at work.

In polishing a round stone you must be careful to avoid producing ‘ridges’ by dwelling too long on one spot. Keep on turning the stone slightly. Common sense will explain my meaning. And in this last stage BE SURE YOU NEVER WIPE YOUR HANDS OR YOUR STONE WITH THE CLOTH USED FOR THE SAND OR EMERY STAGE. Use a clean cloth. It took me _two years_ to find out the force of this simple advice. I could not imagine how it was that just at the last moment, when I was putting the finishing touches to a pebble, some faint but hideous scratches would suddenly appear on its surface, ruining the beauty of the work. How many times have I despaired of success! How often have I written to lapidaries imploring advice, and feeling that there was some ‘wrinkle’ which had purposely been kept from my knowledge! But perseverance was at last rewarded.

There is no ‘dodge’ about it; the whole operation is one of patient labour and determination. After a little working on the pewter lap at one portion of your stone, wash and wipe it. That portion ought to be so perfectly polished that when held slantwise towards the window it reflects the landscape like a looking-glass; and if your work has been true this result will make your heart leap with delight. Continue working until the whole surface of the stone is finished. If at the end portions of it looked blurred, it may be that the texture of the stone is incapable of a high polish in such places; it may more likely be that you have not been particular enough in the first and second stages. Nevertheless the result ought to be encouraging. Your stone ought to be so far polished that you will be proud to show it to your friends, and say, ‘I found and I polished this stone!’

Probably, if you have carefully followed out my instructions, the result will be very creditable for a first attempt. And this is all you have a right to expect.

Some lapidaries, after smoothing their stones on the sand lap employ an elm lap with powdered pumice-stone, and dispense with the pewter lap altogether, facing the stone on the felt lap with putty powder. This process is advantageous in polishing stones _all over_. But on carefully comparing the systems I am convinced that there is nothing like the pewter and rottenstone for general purposes; though the felt is advisable for _round_ stones when they are to be polished over the whole surface. As you proceed you will be able to try experiments at your discretion.

To polish _flat_ surfaces of pebbles we work exactly as we have described, the only difference being that you work the stone _flat_ on the margin of the laps. If you thoroughly understand the principle you will find the flat surfaces easier to manage than the round.

Mussel and other sea-shells, snail-shells, etc., may be polished in the same way--only that being soft they will not require the emery lap. Work them on the sand lap and cloth lap, and a little experience will soon make you proficient in the art.

IV.--HOW TO CUT A PEBBLE.

We have reserved the process of CUTTING a pebble till the last, because it is advisable to understand the polishing process first. Many pebbles make most attractive specimens without being cut, but no pebble looks well after it is cut unless it be also polished. Therefore the polishing is the first essential, and I hope you thoroughly comprehend its principles and are enthusiastic about the whole subject.

To _cut_ a pebble, with a view to polishing its inner surface, we want a spindle and reel as before, fitted with a disc of the thinnest soft iron. These discs are of particular make, and must be procured from a practised maker. You should get six of them, ten inches in diameter, from Mr. Oxley, 83, Caledonian Road, Islington, N. The shoulder for the disc to rest on should be about five inches from the upper point of the spindle, and the nut must be screwed home very tight to keep the disc in position. The disc is ‘panned,’ _i.e._, beaten into a saucer-shape so shallow as to be hardly perceptible to the eye. This precaution is necessary to ensure the edge of the disc being true, for otherwise it would be impossible to make such thin iron free from undulations in the edge.

The discs are by no means cut true when sent down, and as they must be brought to absolute perfection of truth before they can be used, the first thing will be to _turn the edge true_.

Procure three small triangular files, sold at fourpence each. Break an inch off the end of them, and grind them with emery on the lead lap into a pyramidal point (Fig. 7), with edges as keen as a razor and point sharp as a needle’s. Set up the ‘slitter’ (the disc and its spindle) in position, taking care that it stands truly perpendicular. Then arrange a wooden rest underneath the edge of the disc nearest to you, as shown in Fig. 7. The support must be securely fixed, and of the exact height to enable the disc to revolve upon it. Wet the edge of the disc, and turn the handle N with the left hand. Take a file and fix its point into the wooden rest, so that a keen edge may catch the edge of the revolving disc. This will take off a shaving of iron wherever it bites, and by degrees the edge of the disc will be turned true, and continuous shavings will curl off it. There is nothing difficult about this. It requires a neat hand, and you may want to use three files before finishing; but when you understand that you require the edge of the disc to be perfectly true you will soon attain the result; and by lightly applying the file to the upper and under surface of the edge of the disc you will remove any roughness caused by the turning, and the disc will be ready for use.

Remove the wooden support. Put a common plate under the slitter to catch the paraffin, which will shortly require notice.

The disc has now to be CHARGED WITH DIAMOND. This sounds somewhat alarming, but take courage. Diamond ‘bort’ consists of genuine diamonds not sufficiently good to be used for gems. It may be bought of any of the ordinary merchants at a cost of about six shillings the carat. That amount would be enough to cut about twelve or fourteen pebbles an inch and a half in diameter. This is the only serious expense when once the bench has been set up and furnished. And after all it is not very formidable. Take a fragment of bort, and crush it upon a piece of hard steel by means of a steel rod one inch in diameter and six inches in length. Put the bort on the steel plate; smear a little butter over the bort to prevent the broken pieces flying away. Hold the steel rod upon it, and give it a smart blow with a hammer. This crushes the diamond. Then pound it into the smallest possible powder, using the steel rod as a pestle.

Now pour some paraffin into a saucer (J, Fig. 8), and with a feather smear paraffin over the edge of the disc revolving slowly. Take some of the powdered diamond on the forefinger of the right hand, and very carefully transfer it to the edge of the disc. The entire edge must in this way be anointed with crushed diamond-dust. Then a smooth pebble is taken in the right hand (the hand resting comfortably on a support G), and _pressed_ against the edge of the disc revolving. Let us understand exactly the object and action of this. The diamond-powder is the _hardest_ known substance in Nature; the disc is of _soft_ iron; the flint pebble is very _hard_. By the process just described we _press the diamond-powder into the substance of the disc_, so that the edge becomes armed with grains of adamant; the edge becomes a mighty file, or an irresistible saw. The principle is so simple. When you have driven sufficient diamond-powder into the edge of the disc, you have invested the iron with an armature which can cut through every hard substance that exists in Nature except the diamond itself. The hardest flint, emery, iron, glass, metals, etc., must all bow beneath its mighty power. I should like to shake hands with the man who devised this simple and clever method. Before its invention agates kept their treasures locked in close caskets. The diamond-toothed ‘slitter’ has supplied the key for unlocking their secret beauty.

Well, now, the disc is CHARGED, and if you wish to proceed like most of the lapidaries do, you will take the pebble you wish to cut between the forefinger and the thumb of the right hand, letting it rest on the second and third fingers. You will place the support in position, that the hand may rest comfortably upon it when holding the pebble against the disc; and you will begin turning with the left hand. You will soon see that the disc has begun to cleave its path. A distinct cut is visible. You must keep feeding the edge with paraffin by means of the feather; and as, unfortunately, you have not got a third hand, you must hold the feather between your teeth, or else get a friend to do the turning. It ought to take about half an hour to cut an inch through a pebble two inches in diameter. The disc will have to be re-charged with diamond occasionally, which may be done by using the slit of the pebble you are cutting as a ‘charger.’

Such is the method of cutting in vogue among most lapidaries. It answers very well for professionals, but it certainly presents more than one objection to amateurs. I found the objections so weighty that it required no small determination to persevere. First of all, it is very difficult to _hold the stone true_, so that the cut shall proceed in the same straight line; then the paraffin and detritus of the cutting cause such a disagreeable ‘mess,’ in which the right hand has to take up permanent quarters, and the nuisance of feeding the paraffin by holding the feather in the mouth is very great. Finding these objections a grave impediment to success, I bethought me of a device I once saw used by a lapidary, and improved upon it in design, and got a tool made by Mr. Moore, of Clerkenwell, which has proved the greatest comfort and most complete success, entirely obviating all the disagreeables alluded to above. The diagram (Fig. 8) ought to make it clear to you.

A B is a circular steel rod, with shoulder at B, and screwed underneath, rising ten inches above floor of bench. It has an arm (C D) moving easily round, which can be set at any height by screw and nut (E). At D is a hole large enough to admit the cement-stick with pebble attached. This is held securely by a screw at D. A string (F) is slipped over the cement-stick just above the pebble, with a weight attached to the other end. The string passes over a pulley (G) in the opposite side of the bench. It is obvious that the weighted string will always keep the pebble with even pressure against the disc. The result is that all difficulty in _holding_ the pebble is removed. The pressure is constant, and the cut is made perfectly true. The right hand is now free to manipulate the feather for lubricating the disc, and you can work without getting a drop of oil upon your fingers. You turn the handle as briskly as you like. The large wheel multiplies the reel ten times--_i.e._, one revolution of the handle produces ten revolutions of the disc. I often attain a speed of fifteen hundred revolutions of the disc in a minute when cutting a pebble! Keep all points of friction well oiled, and everything will go merrily as a marriage bell. H shows the plate for catching the drops of paraffin and detritus from the stone; J shows the saucer of paraffin. The length of the arm (C D) is ten inches. When you want to recharge the disc with diamond, lift the weight at end of string, shift the arm and the stone to the right, feed the edge of the disc with diamond, and drive it in with a smooth stone as before described.

When your stone is cut through wash the halves, and remove the cement by heating over a candle. The same cement will do for many stones.

You must be careful not to _bend_ the slitter or spoil its edge. Never put it away leaning on the disc. Keep it when not in use suspended by two strings, and wipe off the oil carefully when you put it away.

We have now gone through the various processes of GRINDING, SMOOTHING, FACING, and CUTTING pebbles. You have a clear knowledge of ‘how it is done.’ It remains for you to decide whether or not you are to become a practical lapidary. Remember that it is one thing to know how to work and another thing to put that knowledge into practice. If you resolve to take up the subject you should certainly make friends with some working lapidary, and get him to let you watch him at work, and if possible take a few lessons from him.

A POSTSCRIPT.

Since the foregoing chapter was prepared, W. B. has written to us from Ipswich: ‘I have been very interested in your article on stone polishing. I found, however, that with two hands free you could work the stone much better; so I bought a treadle and wheel (1 ft. 6 in. through) together, then for the grindery dovetailed two boards into one another, and having centred the upright ones, put a hardened coach-screw in, and turned an elm spindle 2 in. thick, and at one end turned a series of pulleys. Then at each end I drilled holes and screwed coach-screws in, after having centred their square heads and drilled a small dent for the other screws to work on. Next I got some wood “bobbins,” turned 5 in. through by 1-1/2 in. thick at hole on spindle, tapering to 3/4 in. The pulleys, of course, were for the driving speed, so that by putting the strap on the small one I could drive fast, and the large one slow.

‘Above is a rough drawing of the lathe part.

‘The best of this is you can screw the “lathe” to the table, and place the driving-wheel where you like, provided you lengthen or shorten the strap. I might add that the cost of the whole thing is under ten shillings.’