688 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1740. 



present day and night, as Mithras represents the sun. Tlie figure imperfectly 

 drawn, at the tail of the horse, is probably a genius, twisted round with a snake ; 

 which means the vitality, imparted to all things, by the solar power and circle. 

 The other figures are officiating priests, and drest in such a symbolic manner, as 

 intimates the sun's influence, and annual motion. 



Part of a Letter from James Mounsey, M. D. Physician to the Czarina's Army, 

 concerning the Russia Castor, the Batlis at Carlsbad, the Salt Mines near 

 Cracow, and various other Notices. Dated Riga, July I, 1749. 



Concerning Russia castor. Dr. M. observes that it is not all from the same 

 animal, some of it being the prostatae, testes, and kidneys of the beaver, ga- 

 thered in the spring ; but the true sort comes from a quite different creature, 

 which resembles a wild goat, just by whose navel the castor is found, like 2 

 glands. This he was assured by people who had seen it on the spot; but as 

 they were quite unacquainted with natural history and anatomy, he would not 

 trust to them too much : he hoped soon however to procure an account that 

 might be depended on.* 



He then proceeds to give some account of his travels in Bohemia, which he 

 says is a fine fertile country, rich in metals and minerals of all sorts. The fron- 

 tiers all round are very high mountains ; the inner parts of the country are 

 hilly, with plains and rising grounds intermixt, that have the appearance of being 

 the remaining bases and ruins of former mountains, the soil being a composition 

 of decayed rocks mixed with some vegetable earth. The rocks on the highest 

 mountains are an aggregate stone of lapides calcarii, spati, quartzi, micae, &c. 

 The plains are covered with the least dissolvable parts of such rocks. Their 

 finest crystals, and precious stones, are gathered behind the plough ; many still 

 retaining the same figures they had received at their formation in the veins and 

 hollows of the rocks. He found on the tops of mountains decaying rocks, 

 which, when mixed with a little vegetable earth, made exactly the same soil 

 with that in the rising grounds and plains below. 



There are several places in this kingdom where the mountains are wholly of 

 lapis Bcissilis, which breaks into rhomboids ; and he observed for many miles the 

 shelves of this stone running through different mountains in the same direction, 

 facing the south-east, with an inclination of the shelves of about 35°. The soil 

 here in the plains is clayey. 



Not far from the frontiers of Saxony, in the mountains, are the famous hot 

 springs of Carlsbad, the tin mines of Schlachtenwald, and mines of Pyrites, 



* The animal from which the true castor is obtained, is the castor fiber Linn. The account given 

 to Dr. M. was a very erroneous one ; for this animal bears no resemblance to " a wild goat." The 

 odorous substance called castor is secreted in follicles situated near the anus. 



