384 Foreign Literature and Science. 
2. Mass of Gold.—In the month of May last, there was 
sent by an express to St. Petersburgh, a mass of pure gold, 
weighing about 25 pounds. _It was found five feet beneath the 
surface, in the environs of Miaeski, from which place several 
large pieces of inferior weight had before been dag Fe ‘ 
dem. 
_ 8. Grand Opal, in the imperial cabinet of Vienna. This 
specimen is 4% inches (Viennica) in length, and 23 in thick- 
ness, and weighs 34 ounces (Viennica). It came from Czer- 
venitzia, in Hungary. Half a million of florins have been 
offered for it, a price very inferior to the real value of this 
unique and magnificent specimen.—Idem. 
4. Precious metals.—In a memoir communicated by M. 
pE Humpo.ptT to the Academy of Sciences, July 17, 1526, 
it is stated that mines of platina have been recently found in 
the Oural mountains, which are so rich that the price of pla- 
tina, it is said, has been lowered thereby nearly one-third. Ip 
1824, the auriferous and platiniferous region of Oural pro- 
duced 286 pouds ; which give 5700 kilogrammes by weight 
of metal, or a value of 19,500,000 francs. The united 
mines of all the rest of Europe, produce annually but 1,300 
kilogrammes. Those of Chili furnish only 3,000, and the 
whole of Colombia yields only 5,000. 
nution of the mines of the new world, will furnish a compen- 
sation. With respect to Russia in particular, an augmenta- 
tion of eighteen millions is a trifle for so vast an empire, par- 
ticularly as nearly a third will be expended in the costs of 
ploration and working. Nothing is so variable as the pro- 
duce « fmines. Those of Mexico, which in 1700 furnished 
ons of piastres in gold and silver, yielded twen- 
