sands of the Rhine, on the shores near Germerscheim and Sels, also contain gold.

The mountains of SPAIN were, according to ancient writers, very rich in gold and silver; and accordingly Gibbon calls that kingdom "the Peru and Mexico of the old world." He adds that, "the discovery of the rich western continent by the Phenicians, and the oppression of the simple natives, who were compelled to labour in their own mines for the benefit of strangers, form an exact type of the more recent history of Spanish America." The Phenicians were simply acquainted with the sea-coasts of Spain; but avarice as well as ambition carried the arms of Rome and Carthage into the heart of the country, and almost every part of the soil was found pregnant with gold, silver and copper. A mine near Carthagena is said to have yielded daily twenty-five thousand drachms of silver, or three hundred thousand pounds sterling a year. The provinces of Asturia, Gallicia, and Lusitania, yielded twenty thousand pounds weight of gold annually: the modern Spaniards have, however, chosen rather to import the precious metals from America, than to seek them at home.

PORTUGAL is in many parts mountainous, and these mountains contain, beside others, rich ores of silver; but the Portuguese, like the Spaniards, being supplied with metals from their transatlantic possessions, and particularly with an abundance of gold and silver from Brazil, do not work the mines in their own country. Gems of all kinds, as turquoises and byacinths, are also found in the above mountains, together with a beautifully variegated marble, and many curious fossils.

QUICKSILVER MINES.

THE quicksilver mines of IDRIA are the most interesting of these, and demand a particular description, as they have been celebrated in natural history, poetry, and romance. The ban of Idria is a district immediately subject to the Chamber of Inner Austria, and lies westward of Carniola. The town, which is small, is seated in a deep valley, amid high mountains, on the river of the same name, and at the bottom of so steep a descent, that its approach is a task of great difficulty, and sometiines of danger.

The mines were discovered in 1497, before which time

that part of the country was inhabited by a few coopers only, and other artificers in wood, with which the territory abounds. One evening, a cooper having placed a new tub under a dropping spring, to try if it would held water, on returning next morning, found it so heavy that he could scarcely move it. He at first was led by his superstition to suspect that the tub was bewitched; but perceiving at length a shining fluid at the bottom, with the nature of which he was unacquainted, he collected it, and proceeded to an apothecary at Laubach, who, being an artful man, dismissed him with a small recompense, requesting that he would not fail to bring him further supplies.

The subterraneous passages of the great mine are so extensive, that it would require several hours to pass through them. The greatest perpendicular depth, computing from the entrance of the shaft, is 840 feet; but as these passages advance horizontally, under a high mountain, the depth would be much greater if the measure were taken from the surface. One mode of descending the shaft is by a bucket; but as the entrance is narrow, the bucket is liable to strike against the sides, or to be stopped by some obstacle, so that it may be readily overset. A second mode of descending is safer, by the means of a great number of ladders, placed obliquely, in a kind of a zig-zag : as the ladders, however, are wet and narrow, a person must be very cautious how he steps to prevent his falling. In the course of the descent, there are several resting places, which are extremely welcome to the wearied traveller. In some of the subterraneous passages the heat is so intense, as to occasion a profuse sweat; and in several of the shafts the air was formerly so confined, that several miners were suffocated by an igneous vapour, or gaseous exhalation, called the firedamp. This has been prevented by sinking the main shait deeper. Near to it is a large wheel, and an hydraulic machine, by which the mine is cleared of water.

To these pernicious and deadly caverns criminals are occasionally banished by the Austrian government; and it has sometimes happened that this punishment has been allotted to persons of considerable rank and family. An incident of this nature, in the person of Count Alberti, laid the foundation of Mr. Sargent's elegant dramatic poem entitled " THE MINE."

The Count having fought a duel with an Austrian general, against the Emperor's command, and having left him for dead, was obliged to seek refuge in one of the forests of Istria, where he was apprehended, and afterwards rescued by a band of robbers who had long infested that quarter. With these banditta he spent nine months, until, by a close investiture of the place in which they were concealed, and after a very obstinate resistance, in which the greater part of them were killed, he was taken and carried to Vienna, to be broken alive on the wheel. This punishment was, by the intercession of his friends, changed into that of perpetual confinement and labour in the mines of Idria-a sentence which, to a noble mind, was worse than death. To these mines he was accompanied by the Countess, his lady, who belonged to one of the first families in Germany, and who, having tried every means to procure her husband's pardon without effect, resolved at length to share his miseries, as she could not relieve them. They were terminated, however, by his pardon being procured by the general with whom he had fought the duel, on the latter being recovered from his wounds; and this nobleman, on his return to Vienna, was again taken into favour, and restored to his fortune and rank.

IRON MINES.

NATIVE IRON, the existence of which was formerly questioned, has been found in several places: it is, however, far from being common, and occurs in several mines. A mass of this description of iron was discovered in the district of Santiago del Estero, in South America, by a party of Indians, in the midst of a wide extended plain. It projected about a foot above the ground, nearly the whole of its upper surface being visible; and the news of its having been found in a country where there are not any mountains, nor even the smallest stone, within the circumference of a hundred leagues, was considered as truly surprising. Although the journey was attended with great danger, on account of the want of water, and abundance of wild beasts in these deserts, several individuals, in the hope of gain, undertook to visit this mass; and, having accomplished their journey, sent a specimen of the metal to Lima and Madrid, where it was found to be very puresoft iron.

As it was reported that this mass was the extremity of an immense vein of the metal, a metallurgist was sent to examine the spot, and by him it was found buried in pure clay and ashes. Externally it had the appearance of very compact iron, but was internally full of cavities, as if the whole had been formerly in a liquid state. This idea was confirmed by its having, on its surface, the impression of human feet and hands of a large size, as well as that of the feet of a description of large birds, very common in South America. Although these impressions seemed very perfect, it was concluded, either that they were lusus naturæ, or that impressions of this kind were previously on the ground, and that the liquid mass of iron, in falling on it, received them. It had the greatest resemblance to a mass of dough; which, having been stamped with impressions of hands and feet, and marked with a finger, had aferwards been converted into iron.

On digging round the mass, the under surface was found covered with a coat of scoriæ from four to six inches thick, undoubtedly occasioned by the moisture of the earth, the upper surface being clean. Not any appearance of generation was observed in the earth below or round it for a great distance. About two leagues to the eastward was a brackish mineral spring, and a very gentle ascent of from four to six feet in height, running from north to south; with this exception, the adjacent territory was a perfect level. About the spring, as well as near the mass, the earth was very light, loose, and greatly resembling ashes, even in colour. The grass in the vicinity, was very short, small, and extremely unpalatable to the cattle; but that at a distance was long, and extremely grateful to them.From these concurrent circumstances it was concluded, that this mass of native iron, which was estimated to weigh about three hundred quintals, was produced by a volcanic explosion. It is stated as an undoubted fact, that in one of the forests of the above district of Santiago del Estero, there exists a mass of pure native iron, in the shape of a tree with its branches. At a little depth in the earth are found stones of quartz of a beautiful red colour, which the honey gatherers, the only persons who frequent this rude territory, employ as flints to light their fires. Several of these were selected on account of their peculiar beauty, they being