of the P y r i t e s. 87 



On this /inter then, thus lately formed, and dill 

 forming, even to this day, we find glitter, iron 

 and copper pyrites , not conveyed by dreams of 

 water, nor agglutinated, but weathered thereon , 

 or produced by weather or damps. This I affirm, 

 to obviate a doubt the reader might otherwife en- 

 tertain, from pieces and bits of ore being loofened 

 either fpontaneoudy, or by men's hands, from 

 veins, and conveyed along by the waters, coming 

 fomewhere or other to lodge and fix, and to be 

 concreted, not only by petrifying waters, but alfo 

 by binding weather, or damps : and I have had 

 famples, where fuch concretions, by waters, of 

 pieces of (tone or rock, was very vifible : nor is 

 it any new thing for the damps of ores and done 

 to fill up a^ain the rents and chaps in vein-ftone. 

 The ore onfwter is a plain and eafy proof in be- 

 half of a weatherings or a production by damps, 

 rather than by way of fir earning •, for, ( 1 . ) both 

 the glitter and the pyrites appear in as compleat, 

 cubical, and angular figures, as they do on quartzy 

 and fpathy drufe, where few will readily admit the 

 effects of a fir -earning, and as little doubt of thofe 

 by damps, as fhall be fhown lower down. (2.) I 

 never once met with any one piece of ore, either 

 on drufe or /inter, tho' I have accurately examined 

 a great many famples, where the piece in queflion 

 manifefted any flaw •, all of them, even the fmall- 

 eft bits, having their proper fmooth furfaces and 

 fides, as the mod indifputed original mixtwork 

 could pofTibly have. (3.) There mud needs in- 

 terpofe a manifed band or cement, either proceed- 

 ing from the mutual action of the bodies them- 

 felves, or from an external weathering, or from 

 water, to bind them together •, and yet, between the 

 /inter and the ore no fuch third body is obfervable 

 to form the band or cement, the ore lying imme-^ 

 diately preffed in upon the done. 



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