g5 ANALYSIS OF ANTIQUE BRONZES. 



of forming the ridge of the cordillera of Auahuac, and fol- 

 lowing its direction, which is from S. E. to N. W., are on 

 the contrary in a line perpendicular to the axis of the great 

 chain of mountains. It is certainly worthy remark, that in 

 the year 1/59 the new volcano of Jorullo was formed to the 

 continuation of this line, and ou the same parallel as the 

 ancient Mexican volcanoes. 

 Indicate a long A view of my plan of the environs of Jorullo will show, 



iif aie°Ear?h Ke tnat l ^ e S * X ^ ar » e nummoc ^ s nave WW out °* tne eartn on 

 a vein, that crosses the plain from the cerro of las Cuevas 

 to the pichaco del Montero. The new mouths of Vesuvius 

 too are found ranged along a fissure. Do not these analo- 

 gies give us reason to suppose, that there exists in this part 

 of Mexico, at a great depth within the Earth, a fissure 

 stretching from east to west through a space of 137 leagues 

 [343 miles], and through which the volcanic fire has made 

 its way at different times, bursting the outer crust of por- 

 phyritic rocks, from the coasts of the Gulf of Mexico to 

 the South Sea ? Is this fissure prolonged to that little 

 groupe of islands, called by Colluet the Archipelago of 

 Regigedo, and round which, in the same parallel with the 

 Mexican volcanoes, pumice stone has been seen floating ? 

 Naturalists who distinguish the facts offered by descriptive 

 mineralogy from theoretical reveries concerning the primi- 

 tive state of our planet will pardon me for having consigned 

 these observations to the general Map of New Spain, con- 

 tained in the Mexican Atlas. 



II. 



Chemical Inquiry into the Composition of some Weapons arid 

 Utensils of ancient Bronze : by Mr. Klaproth *. 



Copper prefer- VV E know from ancient authors, as well as from weapons 

 red to iron by an( j u t ens ii s <] U g U p i n modern times, that men in the ear- 

 liest ages, and even those that succeeded them, employed 



* Magazin EncyelopGd. Juin r 1803, p. 298. From Gehlen's Chemk 

 a\ Journal. 



copper 



