Journey from Vienna. 69 



The town of Neusohl owes its origin to a colony of Saxons 

 invited thither by King Andrew II. for the purposes of mining, 

 but the German race is now extinct, and the place is wholly 

 inhabited by Sclavonians. Its situation on the banks of the 

 Gran, at its confluence with the little river Bistricza, with the 

 high wooded mountains that at a distance appear to advan- 

 tage, exhibiting an amphitheatre of verdure, might charac- 

 terise it as a very agreeable town; but, detached from the rural 

 scenery, it has a sombrous aspect, and -is, in general, ill built, 

 except a few houses ; among these we may distinguish the 

 palace of the ancient bishop. At my first coming, it seemed 

 as if it had been consumed by a conflagration, though I soon 

 found it was owing to the construction of the houses, at least 

 in the principal street. Most of these have but one story, 

 surmounted with a very lofty roof, but to represent a second 

 story, an isolated wall appears to conceal the roof, and which 

 terminates in a cornice. In this wall are one or two openings 

 in the form of windows, but without glasses or a sash, and we 

 can see the dark tints of the roofing through them. But the 

 first impression arising from this singular construction is, that 

 the house is in ruins, that the roof and windows are decayed, 

 and that the case only is left. The mistake is soon detected, 

 and these false windows appear intended to pass through them 

 a heavy piece of timber that serves for a gutter. In some houses 

 somewhat more of luxury appears, and real window blinds, 

 painted green, are annexed to the wall for a deception; how- 

 ever, these enormous gutters, conveying water through window 

 blinds to the distance of ten or fifteen feet, in the middle of 

 the street, must have an odd appearance. 



At my first arrival I became acquainted with M. Zipser, one 

 of the first mineralogists in Hungary, and also with M. Be- 

 niczki, notary or secretary to the comitat, who, to a variety of 

 general information, adds a particular inclination for geology. 

 Their collections contain interesting details relative to Hun- 

 gary, and from their conversation I derived useful instructions 

 for the rest of my journey. Among other civilities, I might 

 notice their accompanying me in several of my excursions. 



In one of these we visited Herrengrund, where copper mines 

 have been worked from the thirteenth century. The kinds of 

 copper are the pyritous, the grey copper, and the green and 

 blue carbonated copper. The decomposition of the minerals 

 produces a great quantity of sulphate of copper, which dis- 

 solves in the waters that filtrate from all parts of the works. 

 These waters are carefully collected in cavities, where they 

 have a process to decompose the salt, and so to extract cop- 

 per by cementation. 



