La nature maratre en ces afreux climats,
Produisoit au lieu d'or du fer et des foldats.
In that rude isle, instead of golden ore.
Nature, to aid the genius of the place,
On her high hills the massy iron bore,
And bade her sons still rise a hardy race.
I may add
And virtue springing from the iron soil.
There are also mines of allum, and of saltpetre, in several parts of Corsica.
There is here a kind of granite, extremely hard, some of it approaching in quality to the oriental granite, which was so famous at Rome, and of which such noble columns are still remaining, said to have been brought from Egypt. I fear it would be extravagant to conjecture, that some of these columns may have been the produce of Corsica; for, besides the perfection of the hieroglyphicks, which prove them to have been in Egypt, I question if such large pieces of granite could be raised in Corsica. There is here likewise porphyry, and a great variety of jasper. The magnificent chapel of the grand duke of Tuscany, at Florence, is finished with Corsican jasper, with which its inside is elegantly incrusted, and has a most beautiful appearance.
