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182 leter from Arcticus. » ig Dees 3s 
undergone; where by little and little almost every curio- 
sity, metal, and gem, of the East is found, even to the re- 
mains of the elephant and rhinoceros, in such immense 
quantity, as to contrast singularly with its present climate. 
_ These remarks apply to both the European and Asiatic 
parts of it. © 
General diffusion of silver. 
Ihave lately received a very curious communication from 
a friend in Bernaul, near the silver mines of Kolivan, on 
the. borders of China. 
It is well known that the experiments of the great Swe- 
difh mineralogist , Bergman, led him to conclude, that, next 
to iran, gold was the metal most universally diffused 
through matter jn general. : 
General Millar, governor of the district of Kolivan, by 
a similar chemical research, has found a simular diffusion 
of silver in all the earths and stones of his government, 
which have fallen under his examination. Even porphyry 
contains a minute portion, so that it seems only the wide 
and minute diffusion of the precious metals, and the ex- 
pence of extracting them, which makes them so-rare, ra- 
ther than their scarcity in the mafs of the globe. 
Singular crystalization of silver. 
I fhall now finifh my present budget of Arctic news with 
_an artiele interesting at least to your chemical readers, re- 
ceived from the same gentleman. 
A Mr Smyde, employed in afsaying the minerals at Ko- 
livan, had occasion, in the course of his businefs, to add 
to a solution of silver in the nitrous acid, a certain por- 
tion of zinc; which mixture was afterwards set aside, and — 
forgot for upwards of a year, when, to the great surprise — 
of that gentleman, he found init a beautiful crystalization of - 
silver, similar to what is sometimes found naturally in the | 
bowels of the earth, and which the origin of has so much 
AY 
