ISABEL (impatient). And if we broke them again, and again, and
again, and again, and again?
L. Well, I suppose you would come to a limit, if you could only
see it. Notice that the little flakes already differ somewhat from
the large ones: because I can bend them up and down, and they stay
bent; while the large flake, though it bent easily a little way,
sprang back when you let it go, and broke when you tried to bend
it far. And a large mass would not bend at all.
MARY. Would that leaf gold separate into finer leaves, in the same
way?
L. No; and therefore, as I told you, it is not a characteristic
specimen of a foliated crystallization. The little triangles are
portions of solid crystals, and so they are in this, which looks
like a black mica; but you see it is made up of triangles like the
gold, and stands, almost accurately, as an intermediate link, in
crystals, between mica and gold. Yet this is the commonest, as
gold the rarest, of metals.
MARY. Is it iron? I never saw iron so bright.
L. It is rust of iron, finely crystallized: from its resemblance
to mica, it is often called micaceous iron.
KATHLEEN. May we break this, too?
L. No, for I could not easily get such another crystal; besides,
it would not break like the mica; it is much harder. But take the
glass again, and look at the fineness of the jagged edges of the
triangles where they lap over each other. The gold has the same:
but you see them better here, terrace above terrace, countless,
and, in successive angles, like superb fortified bastions.
MAY. But all foliated crystals are not made of triangles?
L. Far from it; mica is occasionally so. but usually of hexagons;
and here is a foliated crystal made of squares, which will show
you that the leaves of the rock-land have their summer green, as
well as their autumnal gold.
FLORRIE. Oh! oh! oh! (jumps for joy).