Early in this century, probably between 1908 and 1912, an Austrian walked into the shop of a London dealer carrying a hamper which contained from 500 to 1,000 roughly-made agate beads. They were all made from the same sort of agate. This was pale grey to pale brown in colour and banded in narrow straight layers, some of which are nearly colourless and transparent. The Austrian said that he had bought them in Somerset, and either he or the dealer suggested that they might have come from the sale of the belongings of an old sea captain. I have not been able to get any confirmation of this. The dealer put a considerable number of these into Stevens's sale room. Some are shown in fig. 1.