MINES 265 



oxide of iron and some other substances, of -which it was proposed to make a new 

 mineral species, under the name of Chamoissite. 



The district of the Grisons possesses iron mines with very irregular workings, 

 situated a few leagues from Coire. 



In Tyrol, the mines of Kitzbiihel and Eohrerbiichel were formerly worked with 

 great activity, and in the middle of the eighteenth century had attained the depth of 

 440 fathoms; they were then considered the deepest in Europe, but were soon 

 afterwards abandoned. The ores, copper pyrites, and argentiferous folders occurred 

 in clay-slate. The products of some small mines in this locality, certain of whi.ch 

 are worked in a secondary limestone (as as Eattenberg), are carried to the foundry of 

 Brixlegg, four leagues from Schwatz. The mines of the Tyrol furnished, on an 

 average of years, towards 1759, 10,000 marcs of silver; at anterior periods, their 

 product had been double ; but now it is a little less. This region contains also gold 

 mines whose exploration goes back a century and a half. They occur near the 

 village of Zell, eight leagues from Schwatz. The auriferous veins traverse clay- 

 slates and quartzose-slates. The richer portions contajn 16 to 20 loth (at \ an oz.) 

 of gold in 100 cwts. of vein-stone ; the remainder only to \ of a loth in the same 

 quantity. 



At Borgo near Trient, and Pfundererberg near Clausen, lodes occur in clay-slate 

 and greenstone-porphyry, from which are extracted ores of silver, lead, copper, and 

 zinc. An unimportant occurrence of mercury has also been mentioned in that country, 

 near the Brenner. 



In the territory of Salzburg there are some copper mines ; at Zell am See, Brenn 

 thai, Muhl, and Mitterberg, near AVerfen. In the lofty-mountain region near Gastein 

 auriferous lodes have been worked for centuries at the Eathausberg, Sieglitz, and 

 Eauris. From 118 marcs of gold in the earlier part of the century, the annual yield 

 has diminished to 80. 



At Leogang and Nockelberg an inconsiderable amount of cobalt and nickel ore is 

 raised. 



There are mines of argentiferous copper, some of them also yielding nickel and 

 cobalt, analogous to those of the Tyrol, at Schladming, Feistritz, Walchern, and 

 Kallwang ; in Styria ; at Gross-Fragant and Arza in Carinthia. In the last-men- 

 tioned province, the mines of St. Marein and Saversnig yield considerable quantities 

 of lead ; whilst at Agordo, in the Venetian Alps, copper ores are raised on a large 

 scale. 



At Eadlberg and Lassnigberg, in Carinthia, about 321 cwts. of antimony were an- 

 nually produced a few years since. 



Other lead mines of this portion of the Alps, as those of Bleiberg and Raibl, are 

 worked in limestones belonging to the secondary period. 



In the Tyrol and in Salzburg, at Schwartz, Pillersee, Bischofshofen, &c., various 

 ores of iron are worked. But the portion of the Alps most abundant in mines of this 

 metal is the branch stretching towards Lower Austria. We find here, both in Styria 

 and in Austria, a very great number of explorations of sparry iron. The deposits of 

 the ores of sparry iron of Eisenerz, Erzberg, Admont, and Vordernberg, deserve 

 notice. The latter are situated about 25 leagues S.W. of Vienna. 



The southern flank of the Alps contains also a great many mines of the same 

 kind, from the Lago Maggiore to Carinthia. Those situated near Bergamo, and 

 those of Wolfsberg, Hiittenberg, and Waldenstein, in Carinthia, are among the more 

 notable. 



All these mines of sparry iron are opened in the midst ef rocks of different natures, 

 which belong to the old transition district of the Alps. They seem to have close 

 geological relations with those of Allevard. 



The branch of the Alps which extends towards Croatia, present important iron 

 mines, in the mountains of Adelsberg, 10 leagues S.W. from Laybach in Carniola. 



The iron mines just now indicated in the part of the Alps that forms a portion 

 of the Austrian Empire, supply materials to a great many smelting- works. In Styria 

 and in Carinthia more than 400 furnaces or forges may be enumerated, whose annual 

 product has increased within the last few years from 20,000 to upwards of 100,000 tons 

 of pig-iron. These two provinces are famous for the steel which they produce, 

 and for the good iron and steel tools which they manufacture, s\ich as scythes, &c. 

 Carniola contains also a great many forges, and affords annually about 5,000 tons 

 of iron. 



The limestones surmounting the southern slope of the Alps contain also some lead 

 mines; but the quicksilver mine of Idria, situated in Caraiola, 10 leagues !N.W. of 

 Trieste, is worthy of particular notice. It lies beneath a limestone which everything 

 leads us to refer to the trias and Ilalstatt beds, the most ancient of the secondary lime- 

 stone ; but it is uncertain whether the shales in which the cinnabar occurs, and their 



