200 Mr. Heuland on a Mass of Platinum. [Sept. 



Article VI. 



On a Mass of Platinum at Madrid. By Henry Heuland, Esq. 



(To Dr. Bostock.) 



DEAR SIR, 25, King-street, St. James's, July 22, 1S18. 



I beg to wait upon you with the extract from an authentic 

 communication, with which I have been favoured, respecting 

 the mass of platina now deposited in the Royal Museum at 

 Madrid. Dn. Ignaico Hurtado is the proprietor of certain lands 

 in the Quebrada * de Apot6, in the province of Notiva, in the 

 government of Choco. In this Quebrada is situated his gold 

 mine, called Condoto. One of his negro slaves, named Justo, 

 found this mass of platina in the year 1814, near the gold mine. 

 Dn. Ignaico, most generously, and full of ardour for the sciences, 

 presented this unequalled specimen to His Most Catholic 

 Majesty, through his Excellency Sor. Dn. Pablo Morillo, Com- 

 mander-in-Chief of the Royal Spanish armies in the province of 

 Venezuela, who transmitted the same, together with other 

 objects of natural history, belonging to the botanical department, 

 under the Spanish naturalist Dn. Jose Mutis, to Europe through 

 General Pascual Enrile, who brought it safely to Spain, and 

 forwarded it to the hands of the King; himself by Captain Antonio 

 Van Halen. Being an unique specimen, his Majesty gave it to 

 the Museum. Its figure is oval, and inclining to convex. The 

 Spaniards term it " Pepita," which signifies water worn, and not 

 in situ. 



Its larger diameter is two inches, four lines and a half; and its 

 smaller diameter two inches. Its height is four inches and four 

 lines. Its weight is one pound, nine ounces, and one drachm. Its 

 colour is that of native silver. Its surface is rough, and here 

 and there spotted with yellow iron ochre. The negro who found 

 it suspected that it contained gold : he tried to fracture it, but he 

 was only able to make a dent in the metal, which is, however, 

 sufficient to show its character. 



I have to note the very important discovery of two mines of 

 precious opal in the kingdom of Mexico ; they are in the district 

 of Gracias de Dios, 60 Spanish miles in the interior of the pro- 

 vince of Honduras, or Comayagua, in the kingdom of Guati- 

 mala. These opals are imbedded in porcelain earth, and are 

 accompanied by all the other varieties of opal, but particularly 

 by the beautiful sky blue girasol, and by the sun opal of Son- 

 nenschmidt, who discovered the latter at Guadalupe at a 

 league's distance from Mexico, the capital of that name. The 

 gentleman through whom I procured these opals, presented to 



* Quebrada signifies -a country broken into, or intersected with ravines and 

 clefts. 



