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MEMOIR OF PALLAS. 47 
could not be read but with the deepest interest. 
He descants largely on salt lakes and mines, on 
sulphur mines, lakes and rivers, on many of the 
rarer minerals, and very largely on mining, espe- 
cially of iron, copper, and silver. Some of our 
readers may remember that of those extraordinary 
bodies the metallic stones, one of the most famous 
has the name of Pallas attached to it, from his being 
the first who made it generally known. It was 
isolated on the surface, upon the top of a mountain, 
far from every appearance of any volcano or mining 
operation, and weighed 1600 pounds. The metal 
was quite maleable when cold, was cavernous, and 
studded with quartz. The Tartars declared it had 
fallen from heaven, and regarded it as sacred. The 
famous chemist Berzelivs has lately devoted his at- 
tention to the composition of many of these stones, 
which he divides into two species, and among others 
to that of Pallas.* Our author’s minute and very 
interesting details, we must altogether omit. 
It is not because the author has given an inferior 
attention in these Travels to natural history that we 
notice it last, but for the very opposite reason: this 
was certainly to have been expected, and in all its 
departments there are never ending acute and most 
interesting statements. In addition to all the in- 
formation in the body of the work, he subjoins at 
the end three supplements in Latin which contain 
a classical description of three hundred and ninety- 
* New Edin, Phil. Journ. vol. xxii. p. 1. 
