236 NICOLAUS STENO 



no foundation, have been based those minute and all but incon- 

 ceivable subdivisions of veins made use of by diggers of min- 

 erals ; and that divination for the abundance of metal by means 

 of roots and branches is, in consequence, as doubtful as is the 

 ridiculous belief of certain Chinese concerning the head and tail 

 of the dragon which they employ in finding a favorable place of 

 burial in the mountains.^ 



2. That most of the minerals for which man's labor is spent 

 did not exist at the beginning of things. 



3. That in the investigation of rocks many things can be 

 disclosed which are attempted in vain in the study of the min- 

 erals themselves, seeing that it is more than probable that all 

 those minerals which fill either the clefts or expanded spaces of 

 rocks had as their matter the vapor forced from the rocks them- 

 selves, whether the deposition took place before the strata 

 changed their position, as I believe happened in the mountains 

 of Peru,^ or when the strata had already changed their position ; 

 and that a new metal can therefore form in the place of an 



P. 37. exhausted one, as is believed rather than known concerning the 

 mining of iron among the people of Elba, for the miner's tools 

 and the idols which have been found there were surrounded 

 not with iron but with earth.' 



And these things concerning the strata of the earth I thought 

 ought to be investigated the more carefully, not only because 

 the strata themselves are solids naturally enclosed within solids 

 but also because in them are contained almost all those bodies 

 which gave rise to the question propounded. 



1 This practice is mentioned by Kircher, China Illiistrata (Amstelodami, 1667), p. 135, 

 who quotes Trigautius, De Christiana Expeditione apud Sinas Suscepta (Augustae Vind., 

 1615), lib. I, ix, p. 95. 'One characteristic of the Chinese can be mentioned. In seeking a 

 spot for building private and public structures, or for burying their dead, they examine the spot 

 with the head, tail, and feet of various dragons which are supposed to live beneath it ; and 

 they believe that all their adversity and prosperity depend upon the dragons.' ■ Maar, op. cit., 

 Vol. II, p. 337. 



What is perhaps the first published description of the divining rod and its use in finding 

 minerals or water, is given by Agricola', De Re Metallica, II, edition of Hoover, pp. 38-42, 

 See also Robert Boyle, edition of Shaw, Vol. I, pp. 172, 173. 



" The mineral deposits in the Peruvian mountains were familiar to Steno from de Acosta's 

 Historia Natural y Moral de Las Indias (Seuilla, 1590), iv, iv-v, and from de Rosnel's Le 

 Mercure Indien, ou Le Tresor des Indes (Paris, 1667), Premiere Partie, Livre Premier, I-III. 

 Maar, op. cit., Vol. II, p. 337. 



' The belief that iron would " grow " or replace itself in process of time, probably arose 

 from finding limonite upon the tools mentioned in the text. See above, p. 232, note 2. 



