60 InteJligoice and Miscellancuus Articles. 



This territory is also very rich in gold. According to the docu- 

 ments supplied by Professor Fuchs, from the commencement of the 

 summer of 1823 to the month of August in the same year, 7792 

 workmen were employed in the gold washuigs of the Uralian moun- 

 tains, and they procured 1-160 pounds of pure gold from 225,000 

 times its weight of auriferous sand ; the number of workmen was 

 then increased to 11,500, and these in August and September ob- 

 tained 1274 pounds of gold from about 320,000 times its weight of 

 sand. To sum up, from the 1st of May to the 1st of October, 2824 

 pounds and some ounces of gold were procured from about 270,000 

 times its weight of sand, to which are to be added 27 pounds and 

 some ounces, obtained before the 1st of June 1824. 



Le G/o6e of the 21st of October last, states that MM Humboldt, 

 Rose and Ehremberg, under the sanction of the Russian Government, 

 had set out to inspect these mines, and also the gold mines of Boro- 

 sowk, the malachite mines of Gumeselesski and Tagilsk. It is stated 

 that the washings of the gold and platina mines yield annually 6000 

 kilogrammes, or about 12,000 English pounds of gold ; and M. Hum- 

 boldt was astonished to find masses of gold in these auriferous 

 sands, weighing from 2 to 3 and even from 18 to 20 pounds each : 

 they occur a few inches tinder the gra.ss. From theo9th to the 60th 

 degree of latitude, fossil elephants' teeth occur enveloped in tliis al- 

 luvial soil ; this circumstance is regarded as a proof tliat the forma- 

 tion of these auriferous sands is very recent. 



M. Humboldt observes that it is very remarkable, that in the 

 middle and northern parts of the Uralian mountains, the platina is 

 found in abundance only on the western and European slope, whilst 

 the rich gold washings are on the Asiatic sides of the Bartiraya. 



NEW PROCESS FOR PREPARING FORMIC ACID. 



To procure formic acid, M. Wcehler recommends that a mixture 

 of starch and peroxide of manganese should be put into a retort, 

 sulphuric poured upon it and subjected to distillation : much carbonic 

 acid is evolved, and an acid liquor passes over at the same time, 

 the smell of which is very penetrating, and it irritates the eyes 

 strongly ; this is formic acid, rendered impure by a volatile matter, 

 to which its strong smell is owing. When this liquor is saturated 

 with an oxide, the smell ceases and the solution has a yellow tint. 

 It is only necessary to distil the formiates thus obtained, with sul- 

 phuric acid, to obtain pure formic acid, and without any smell but 

 that which it naturally has. The salts which even the impure acid 

 forms with barytes, lime and lead, have precisely the same crystalline 

 form as the same salts prepared with the native acid : the salt of 

 lead was analysed ; its acid was found to contain the same consti- 

 tuents as common fortnic acid. — Hensman's Reperloire, May 1829. 



CHROMATE OF ZINC AS A PIGMENT. 



M. Lampadius directs that chromate of zinc should be prepared by 

 lidding a solution of chromate of potash to one of sulphate or muriate 

 of zinc. There is not at first any precipitation, but on adding more 



chromate. 



