[ 6: ] 
but there can be little doubt that confiderable mines 
of it lie hidden in that enormous chain of mountains 
which feparates the Eaftern from the Weftern part 
of this continent.—Long may they remain buried! 
and may Americans be taught, by the fweets of ex- 
perience, that it is not the digging into the mine, 
but the careful cultivation of the foil, which yields 
the greateft quantity of the precious metals! Un- 
happy Mexico! unhappy Peru! and Spain herfelf 
not happy! 
Befides the above, we have plenty of ron, /alt, 
and coal; and, in fome places, alum, and /ulpbur. 
The coal, of what is called Duncan’?s Mine, at Pitts- 
burg, is equal to the beft I have fen in the Englifh 
counties of Northumberland and Durham. I am 
poffeffed of fome curious fpecimens of this foffil, 
in all its ftages, from the vegetable to the coal 
ftate. 
With refpect to the cochineal, it, is by no meansa _ 
ftranger to the northern continent of America. I 
have repeatedly feen the infect: in Eaft-Florida, 
Georgia, and South-Carolina; of all whichcountries 
it isa native: but in Weft-Florida only did I fee 
the true plant on which it feeds in more fouthern 
countries—and that but feldori. In Carolina and 
Georgia, where they have the dwarf opuntia only, 
I have feen the plant white w ith thefe infects’; fo 
numerous were they in a certain feafon of the year. 
Tt will be fome time, however, before cochineal will 
attract 
