of the Pvrite s. 6? 



In and under the upper layers of earth, ores ap- 

 pear to have been fometimes broken off from ano- 

 ther place, pufhed forth and mattered to pieces ; 

 fometimes they have been found complicated, and 

 at other times fcattered about, partly in banks or 

 earths newly turned up, as in lb many prepared 

 ore- matrixes : and I mail leave it as an undeter- 

 mined opinion, whether the belief that by the de- 

 luge actual head ore-veins, or large conilant veins 

 have been produced, be quite fo abfurd ? 



And firft, as to fioads, or broken fragments of 

 veins, we are not in the leafb to doubt of their 

 being affignable to fome violent alterations, of 

 which the deluge alone can properly be fuppofed 

 the caufe. And this feems no ways improbable, 

 from the effects of fmall torrents, in loofening and 

 carrying minerals up to the day •, this appears 

 from the gold fpangles and grains in fome rivers, 

 as in the Schwartze in Thuringia, the Goldfche 

 in the Voigtland, and other waters ; in which we 

 often find the minerals themfelves fhew that they 

 •were forced away from veins. And, doubtlefs, 

 we might alfo find the ores of other metals, were 

 we as diligent in fearch for them. Great floods 

 exert a furprifing force in vallies, on oppoflng 

 banks and walls, nay, on rock itfelf ♦, huge frag- 

 ments of them being often rolled to a great di- 

 {lance. But what is all this, in comparifon to the 

 mighty effects of the deluge, which has tore out 

 of the inmofl bowels of the earth, and from depths 

 we can never hope to reach, ores and rock ? at 

 the fame time, the fountains of the deep were 

 confiderably enlarged. Now, as the ores hap- 

 pened to lodge accidentally here and there in the 

 earth, and were occafionally of one and another 

 fort, clofe and fpungey, near to, and at a diftance 

 from the great flood-fountains, fo alfo the Jhoads 



need to prove either poor or rich, 



F 2 yi\]s 3 



