Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/89

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pies may be difunitcd and kept feparate, and will be found to be a large proportion of land, a quantity of a light mud, capa- ble of remaining a long time fufpended in water, a heavier mud finking immediately in water. By an analytic of any particular Mould by this means, wc may find its true con- ffituent particles, and be able to mix up and compound a fimilar one for the growth of any peculiar plant it produces : But plants have the amftance of heat as well as moitture, in the draining their juices from the earth ; therefore it may^not be impropcr'to try the effecT: of fire on the fame fubjeft. The common garden Mould diftilled in a retort in a naked fire, managed in its various degrees, affords a water, and oil and fpirit hke thofe yielded by animal fubjccls, and poflibly arifing from fome extraneous particles mixed with the earth, and a dry caput msrtuum, or indolent earth remains in the retort. The particles of animal, vegetable, and mineral fubftances, floating in the atmofphere, and thence precipitated on the earth, may give fome of the properties to garden Mould, and thofe different in different places ; as is evident about London, where the mould is fo impregnated with fmoak, precipitated on it from the atmofphere, that it differs much from that of open countries. Shaw's Lec/tures, p. 64.. Moulds of Coins ± a fort of concave Moulds made of clay, having within them the figures and infcriptions of antient Ro- man coins found in many parts of England, and fuppoled to have been ufed for the calling of money. Mr. Baker having been favoured with a fight of fome of thefe Moulds found in Shropihire, bearing the fame types and in- fcriptions with ibme of the Roman coins, gave an account of them to the Royal Society.

They were found in digging of fund, at a place called Ryton in Shropfbire, about a mile from the great Watling-ltreet road. They are all of the fize of the Roman denarias, and of little more than the thicknefs of our halfpenny. They are made of a fmooth pot or brick clay, which leems to have been firtt Wull cleanfed from dirt and fand, and well beat or kneaded, to render it fit for taking a fair impreffion. There were a great many of them found together, and there are of them not unfrequently found in Yorkfhire; but they do hot feem to have been met with in any other kingdom, except that fome have been faid to be once found at Lyons". They have been fome times found in great numbers joined together fide by fide, on one flat piece of clay, as if intended for the catting a great number of coins at once ; and both thefe, and all the others that have been found, feem to have been of the emperor Severus. They arc fometimes found impreffed on both fides, and fome have the head of Severus on one fide, and fome Well known reverie of his on the other. They feem plainly to have been intended for the coinage of money, though it is not eafy to fay in what manner they can have been employed to that purpofe, especially thofe which have impreffions on both fides, unlefs it may be fuppofed that they coined two pieces at the fame time by the help of three Moulds, of which this was to be the middle one. If by difpofing thefe into fome fort of iron frame or cafe, as our letter- founders do the brafs Moulds for catting their types, the melted metal could be eafily poured into them, it would certainly be a very eafy method of coining ; as fuch Moulds require little time or expence to make, and therefore might be fupplied with new ones as often as they happen to break. Thefe Moulds feem to have been burnt or baked fufficiently to make them hard ; but not fo aS to render them porous like our bricks, whereby they would have loft their fmooth and even furface, which in thefe is plainly fo clofe, that whatever metal thould be formed in them would have no appearance hke the fand holes by which counterfeit coins and medals aie ufually detected. MauLD-tVarp, a name given by the people in many parts of England to the mole. See the article Talpa.

?^ DER> in brick -raafcng. See the article Brick- Making.

MOUNT (C,,/.)-Mount-^. In the tin-works, after hat tin from the burnt ore is melted down, and re-melted, there will fometimes remain a different Aug in the bottom of the float; this they call Mount-egg ; and though of a tin co- lon!, yet is of an iron nature, as halh been found by apolvine a magnet to it. * trj""&

MOUNTAIN (CM)-The origin c Mo, mta!ns feems h been from exp folions by mc an s of fubterranean fires ; and it is yeryprobable that they have allvaft hollows beneath them ; that his migh have been the means ufed at the creation, to make the dry land appear „ no „ rfufonanr. to reafon, fince hiftory proves, that fires have raged in fubterranean caverns under the leas, and there is no natural impoffibility in fire" iubfifting m fuch caverns, even when the earth JL all o ve covered with water, as at the firft creation. .WW^rappear, tomany, defectsand blemifhes in the earth; b in Lr^ y ° f i h, ;, U,moft ■* «* n«cffity to the Weill liv "but" „ T T t"/ m ™ h - Many creatures cannot live but in particular iltuations, and even rt,. , c \

higheft and I coldeft Mounts £ ? the on y^plTs whe«

among bird" 6X a " d dUmm am0 " S beafo > anJ tb, lagopus

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The Mountains alone are able to furnifh man with the feveral metals of fo many ufes in life ; for if thefe were produced iri level ground, it leems very evident that no art could ever keep the mines dry, by which we fliould get at them ; nor could we have fprings and fountains, but for the advantage of the height of hills. This feems indeed to be the great defign dl" mountain!, that their ridges being placed through the midft of continents, might ferve to diftil frefh water for the ufe of man and beaft ; and their heights to give a defcent to thofe ftreams to run gently down, and be of more benefit tb the creation. Thus the more wc confider nature, the more we muff admire its works ; and what feems defeft or blemifh in them, on a flight view, often proves, on more juft obferva- tion, a great benefit and beauty. Ray's, Pbyfico-Theological Difcourle, c. 3.

The difficulty of breathing at the tops of high Mountains is a thing fo plainly felt, that hone who has ever been in the way of making the experiment, but is well convinced of the cer- tainty of the fact. Acofta defcribes what he felt on the tops of the high Mountains of Pariaeaca veryjudicioufly. The Mountains of Armenia, and particularly that oh which Noah's ark is fuppofed to have refted, have been alfo made famous by the like accounts; though the fnows that lie on the tops of thefe Mountains make it impraclicable to afcend their tops; the people who climb as high as they can, always find that they breathe with more difficulty, and are compelled to fetch their breath oftener than when on the plains ; and on travellers complaining of this, their guides always tell them, that it is a known thing, and is what every body fullers there.

The Mountains in Languedoc and the Pyreneans have the fame effea. People of curiofity have fometimes remained hours on the fummit of thefe mountains, and always found the fame fort of difficulty in breathing ; but it is poffible that this may be owing to the exhalations of certain fteams from the earth in thefe places, lefs loaded with a weight of air than below ; and this appears the more probable, as in go- ing up the mountain Teneriffe, if many people are in com- pany, and afcend different ways, fome ufually bear it better than others ; and the very complexions of fome are turned yellow by the exhalations which are very plainly perceived by their fmell and fharpnefs, while others who afcend to the fame height by different trafis, efcapc. The molt remarkable Mountain in the world in fhape, is that called the needle Mountain, or the inacce-ffible Mountain in Dauphiny. ....

This is a vaft hill, placed as it were bottom upwards, or fet on its fummit on the earth with its broad bale elevated in the air ; it is but about a thoufand paces in cirenmference at the bottom^ and is above two thoufand at the top. On the center of the plain at the top there ltands another finall and very narrow but very high hill. . ,

It obtained the name of the needle as it got the otherj by its being fuppofed impraSicable to the afcent of any one, by rea- fon of its projeaing fo greatly outwards. Some hardy perfons however once ventured to climb it, and found at the top a number of the chamois, animals by no means qualified for climbing, and which doubtlefs had never either afcended or delcended the Mountain, and which muff be fuppofed to have bred there for many ages, though it be very difficult to ac- count for their firft getting to the place. Hift, Acad. Par. 1700. Chains of Mountains, a term ufed by geographers to exprefs thofe continuations of Mountains which run in ftrait ridges along whole countries, and appear difpofed in uninterrupted orders wherever they are found. Kircher labours to prove, that thefe chains are annular, and reach abfolutely round the globe of the earth, encompaffing it from north to fouth, and thence to the north again ; and in the fame manner from eafl to weft, and from thence to the eaft again ; their courfe only difappearing, by the wife providence of nature, in the bot- toms of the fea, that the immenfe body of waters treafured there might have its motion free and unimpeded in its channel, but appearing again in the fame line in every the fmalleft ifland that {hews itfelf in the way of their ftrait courfe, from the country where the laft link of the chain was feen, to that where their firft link appears again. He fays that thefe vaft hills of earth and ftone, ferve not only to lrrengthen and fup- port the fabric of this vaft globe of earth, but they have ano- ther very great ufe, not only to man, but to all animals, and even vegetables ; which is, that they are the ftorehoufes where the grand refervoirs of frefh water, fo neceflary to all life, are treafured up, and from whence it is eafily poured down uponthe lower parts of the globes In Europe, the great refervoirs of water, that fupply whole countries of immenfe extent, are placed in that vaft chain of Mountains called the Alps, from which, as from an inexhauftible ftore, the vaft trafls of fruit- ful land that lie below them are fumciently watered. The Mountains which compofe this part of the great annular chain running north and fouth round the globe, are called by three different names ; the Cottite, the Rhatian hills with the Vogefus, and the Appennines ; from thefe are poured out the immenfe rivers which water this fruitful part of the world, the Danube, the Rhine, the Rhone, the Mofelle, and an

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