1864. | Ansrep on Copper Mining in Tuscany. 433 
COPPER MINING IN TUSCANY. 
Account of the Copper Vein occurring in Tertiary Volcanic Rock worked 
at the Mine of Monte Catini in Tuscany. 
By Professor D. T. Anstzp, F.R.S. 
Tuer copper mining of Tuscany has within the last quarter of a cen- 
tury assumed considerable importance, and more than one of the great 
mining successes of the time has been gained there. The position and 
circumstances of the mineral veins that yield these supplies are 
peculiar, and differ much from the cases with which miners are 
familiar, not only in England but in Europe generally. At the present 
time, when everything within the range of the Italian Government is 
accessible to our countrymen, it is well that a knowledge of these 
sources of mineral wealth and great scientific interest should be 
widely known. I make no apology, therefore, for offering a few notes 
on the subject, collected during a visit I paid to Tuscany last autumn. 
The river Cécina is one of the largest of several small streams that 
take their origin in the tertiary hills west of the valleys of the Arno 
and the Tiber. These streams, after crossing a few miles of tertiary 
rock, through which here and there picturesque hills seem to rise up 
without any reference to the surrounding country, enter the Mediter- 
ranean in the flat alluvial tract extending almost uninterruptedly from 
Leghorn to Civita Vecchia. They traverse a country, parts of it 
covered with vegetation at certain seasons, but many parts almost 
startling from their extreme bareness and desolation. In these places, 
and indeed everywhere in this part of Italy, the effect of the last heavy 
rains is always traceable on the loose sands of the valley and plain, 
and at intervals we find fissures from which issue hot, sulphurous 
vapours. Formerly there were numerous small lakes or lagoons of 
muddy water boiling vehemently. The low plains were redolent of 
the disagreeable odour of rotten eggs, owing to the emanations of sul- 
phuretted hydrogen gas, and carbonic acid gas issued in great quantities 
from certain crevices. The soil was loose and dangerous, and sheep, 
cattle, and pigs, and even human beings were frequently buried in the 
treacherous and shaking soil. Within the last thirty years the country 
is much improved. The vapours have been utilized in a double sense, 
for vast quantities of borax are now economically manufactured by 
taking advantage of the natural heat of the streams and springs to 
evaporate the solutions of valuable salts that abound in the district. 
The axis of the fissures that yield both borax and the hot vapours 
is parallel to that of the Apennines, and also to that of a number of 
eruptions of serpentinous rock in Tuscany. It agrees, further, with the 
direction of several recent earthquakes in Italy. Fissures in the ser- 
pentine rock itself, and also in the rock immediately adjacent, contain 
numerous minerals, and among them some ores of copper of very great 
importance. One of the veins is worked in the mine of Monte Catini 
to great profit, and under very interesting conditions. Others are 
