Quite recently I obtained from an importation of Japauesa curiosities two pairs of chop-sticks which were catalogued and sold as jade. Under this name arc often included, not only the true jade or nephrite, with a hardness of 6 and a specific gravity approaching 8, but also three other mineral species. Of these jadente is not only harder but heavier than jade : prehnite differs but slightly from jade in either of these characters; while flour, the remaining species referred to, has a hardness of 4 only. Had the specimens to which I now direct attention belonged to any of the foregoing species, they would have been worthy of notice on account of their extraordinary size, or rather length, and also by reason of the beauty of their appearance. But after I had determined these objects to be serpentine, I thought some particulars as to their characteristics might prove of service in identifying one of the materials employed in oriental art.