Page:Philosophical Transactions - Volume 001.djvu/24

 then the other; of no plain Superficies, but full of little cavities. The stone, when broken, is full of small peble stones of an Ovall figure: its colour is gray like free-stone, but intermixt with veins of yellow and black. A part of it I have begg'd of Dr. Haughten for you, which I have sent to Oxford, whither a more exact account will be conveyed by the same person.

The mines of Mercury in Friuli, a Territory belonging to the Venetians, are about a days Journey and a half distant from Goritia Northwards, at a place call'd Idria, situated in a Valley of the Julian Alps. They have been, as I am inform'd, these 160. years in the possession of the Emperor, and all the Inhabitants speak the Sclavonian Tongue. In going thither, we travell'd several hours in the best Wood I ever saw before or since, being very full of Firrs, Okes, and Beeches, of an extraordinary thickness, straitness, and height. The Town is built, as usually Towns in the Alps are, all of wood, the Church only excepted, and another House wherein the Overseer liveth. When I was there, in August last, the Valley, and the Mountains too, out of which the Mercury was dug, were of as pleasant a verdure, as if it had been in the midst of Spring, which they there attribute to the moistness of the Mercury; how truly, I dispute not. That Mine, which we went into, the best and greatest of them all, was dedicated to Saint Barbara, as the other Mines are to other Saints, the depth of it was 125. paces, every pace of that Country being, as they inform'd us, more than 5 of our Feet. There are two ways down to it; the shortest perpendicular way is that, whereby they bring up the Mineral in great Buckets, and by