78 The Production and Generation 



the excefs of the copper, which may fometimcs 

 amount to almoft half the ore, it ufually quite lofes 

 the appellation, iron-pyrites, yet, the quantity of 

 copper with the iron is inconftant and variable : 

 For, iron-pyrites may well be without any copper, 

 as thofe of HeiTe, Boll, Altfattel, Toplitz, &c. 

 fufficiently Ihew, but copper-pyrites never without 

 iron. And mould this be allowed of no weight, 

 yet what has a greater affinity with iron than cop- 

 per ? We have often copper-pyrites veins, without 

 the leafl lead-glitter, much lefs any other ore, ei- 

 ther attending or intermixed : but where is there 

 any other mine, without a number of different 

 veins, either accompanying or intermixed, and 

 without any pyrites at all ? Iron and copper co- 

 here fo firmly together, as often to be fcarce fe- 

 parable, as the Strafburg undertakers experience 

 to their coft, at the Lower Hartz, where there 

 lie fome hundred quintals of metal, as 'tis called, 

 or black copper, holding $6 lb. of ' rofe« copper the 

 quintal, and 4 loths * of filver : nor can they, with 

 much more facility, feparate the grey iron ftone 

 (containing 30 lb. of iron the quintal, and tainting 

 the copper) from the copper-ore. Copper, next to 

 iron, above all the metals (if we exclude zink, bif- 

 muth, and regulus of antimony, and perhaps alfo 

 tin, as belonging to the clafs of femi-metals) mani- 

 fefts the largefl: lhare of phlogifion ; not to mention 

 other circumftances, too tedious here to enumerate. 



The queftion may be refolved by propofing 

 another, namely, why in other ore- matrixes, as 

 for inftance, fand-ftone, loam, and the like, which, 

 equally with fhiver, are derived from the deluge, 

 there are not alfo pyrites- fquats. To this the an- 

 fwer may be, that all fuch queries are premature, 

 and ought to be forborn, 'till we can aflerc, they 



* A loth \s half an ounce. 



have 



