The Opal.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 2278, 15 September 1899, Page 6

The Opal.

There ar.* three varieties of this famous gem. Kanking first comes the Oriental; as second in vain-, the tire; and. lastly, the common opal. The affection for this precious treasure, as expressed by the ancients, can hardly be believed. Nonnius. a Roman S-nator, absolutely preferred exile to parting with a brilliant opal of the size of a filbert, which was earnestly cuvnted by Marc Antony. An •pal ranking as third among the finest in the -world is described as having thr-e longitudinal hands of the harlequin kind, from the uppermost of which rose perpendicularly the most r-splendent flames. It measured !hn. by fiin In the last century a very round and brilliant opal was the property of the a nisi feu r Fl-ury. Another, said to he fascinatingly vivid, was owie-d by a noted French financi r. Tims- two w re regarded as marvels of beauty among gems, i»n account of the thousand fissures of the stone, , ngraving is always difficult, and often impossible. \ h-ad of Sappho engraved upon a "presumable opal," an antique, hasb.cn highly valued and car-fully studi-d by exp-rts in g-m lore, it is catalogued, so we read, among t !i- tr- asures of a princely home