MINERAL^. 



413 



The burning of coal has been supposed to contri- 

 bute to the healthiness of the cities of England and 

 Scotland, where pestilential diseases prevailed much 

 more formerly, before the forests were carxifuUy 

 preserved, than since the general introduction of 

 coal. The city of Richmond, in Virginia, has been 

 referred to, as an example of the febrifuge operation 

 of the snioke of coal ; the febrile ailments of its in- 

 habitants having greatly lessened, since their fires 

 were generally made of that material. 



Dr. Mitchell supposes that coal acts in thus keep- 

 ing away diseases, by the volatile alkali it affords 

 in combustion, destroying the acidity, which, he 

 imagines, exists in the atmosphere of cities, arising 

 from the putrefactive processes continually going 

 on. 



Plumbago, or black lead, is found in the township 

 ©f Sutton, New Hampshire. The specimens pro- 

 duced in Philadelphia are of a superior quality, quite 

 free from impurities, and give a fine silvery stroke 

 ©n paper. 



Gold,*, .In Cabarras county, North Carolina, gold 

 was discovered, in 1803, in the bottom of a small 

 stream, called Meadow Creek, which falls into 

 Rocky River, a principal branch of the Pedee. The 

 first piece of this precious metal was found by a 

 boy who was exercising himself by shooting small 

 fishes with a bow and arrow. The masses are of 

 different sizes, from very small grains, to that of a 

 mass weighing a quarter of avoirdu])ois hundred. 

 This transcends, by far, a piece of native gold sent 

 from Mexico to Spain, for the royal cabinet, on ac- 

 c^ount of its extraordinary size. This Carolinian 



