the Quicksilver Mines ofldria in Illyria. 335 



digging in galleries, the temperature of which is very high, the 

 workmen relieve each other every two hours; and yet they are 

 in a continual state of perspiration, although they work almost 

 naked. This perspiration weakens them much. 



The workmen are prohibited from drinking spirituous liquors: 

 water is their only beverage, and it is brought them by boys 

 who are constantly going about the pits to supply them. This 

 is a wise regulation. 



When the workmen are employed on a part of the mines which 

 contain native mercurv, a small portion of this metal is mixed 

 with the dust of the matrix, and is thus inhaled : persons thus 

 employed for any length of time lose their teeth very soon*. 



The rocks of the mine are in general calcareous, and belong 

 to the formation of the Julian alps. This calcareous mass is, 

 however, rarely pure : it is composed of a major proportion of 

 lime, some alumine, and a small portion of magnesia and iron. 



The geological constitution of this mine seems, in short, to be 

 ■very extraordinary: it astonishes all the mineralogists who visit 

 it, and it is extremely difficult to account for its formation. 



In general it has been considered as very ancient : this seems 

 to be proved by our meeting at very great depths with the same 

 hrtches with those at the surface : these are again covered with 

 banks of limestone of a very regular inclination over a verjr 

 great extent in length, as well as schists which alternate fre- 

 qnently with the latter. The limits which I have prescribed 

 to myself in this notice, do not admit of my considering this 

 important question at present, but I shall recur to it in a work 

 I am preparing on this establishment. 



The mine of Idrla on account of Its strange formation re- 

 sembles no other of the kind. It is far from presenting that 

 facility of working which we generally meet with in other metal- 

 lic mines with regular seams. 



The miner has no certain guide for finding good ore in any 

 particular direction: thus he must dig out every thing before 

 him : the work is therefore equally arduous in the galleries 

 where they jjick out the metal, as in those for common digging. 

 Nature, in short, does not seem to have acted at Idria, as she 

 has done in some other parts of the globe where she has been 

 pleased to conceal metallic treasures. 



Every thing seems to announce disorder, confusion, and chaos 

 at Idria. Some dreadful catastrophe seems to have presided at 

 this extraordinary formation, and the whole mineral kingdom 



* It is somewliat singular, tliat since t!ic (Ire vvliicli broke out in the 

 initie of Idria on the 15th of March 1803, it has been remarked that the- 

 air was vitiated Jess cabily in certain galleries, and that tiic tcmperatnre 

 was intu;ti loiver. 



has 



