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516 TALC FAMILY. that it can be turned and' cut with great ease : hence it! is frequently fashioned into various kinds of culinary vessels, which harden in drying, and are very refrac tory in the fire. These vessels do not communicate any taste to the food boiled in them, and have been used for culinary purposes for ages. Pliny mentions them, and describes the mode of making them, and the changes they experience by using. In those times, potstone was named Lapis comensis, and Lapis Sijihniits, from the island of Siphnus, (the present Siphanto), where it was found. In Upper Egypt, this mineral is named Pierre de Baram, and is used for culinary vessels. Quarries of potstone were worked on the banks of the Lake Como, from the beginning of the Christian era to the 25th of August 1618, when they fell in and destroyed the neighbouring town of Pleurs. It was there used for culinary vessels and oven-soles, both of which were uncommonly durable. In proof of this, it is mentioned, that an oven at Liddus in the Valais, stood unimpaired for several hundred years. The town of Pleurs drew annually from those quarries, stone Jo the value of 60,000 ducats. In Green land and Hudson’s Bay, culinary vessels and lamps are made of potstone; and in Norway and Sweden, it is used for lining stoves, ovens, and furnaces. Observations. 1. It is very nearly allied to Indurated Talc, from which it is distinguished by its deeper grey colour, higher lustre, kind of fracture, distinct concretions, and white streak. 2. It is so nearly allied to Mica, that Werner has placed it in the system beside it: we have, for obvious i " • * reasons, preferred arranging it with the talcaceous mine rals. I. Talc-