48 



SILVER. TIN. 



miles. The prevailing rock in the gold region is 

 argillite. 



<S^7^;er.— -This metal occurs both native and com- 

 bined with sulphur and muriatic acid, forming sul- 

 phuret and muriate of silver. Its colour is white, 

 often tarnished gray or reddish ; melts into globule, 

 and, when dissolved in nitric acid, tinges the skin 

 indelibly black. It occurs in Saxony and Suahia 

 in gneiss and mica slate ; also in Bohemia, Nor- 

 way, Ireland, England, South Anjerica, Huntington 

 (Connecticut), and, generally, in small quantities, in 

 all lead ores. 



In some instances large masses have been found ; 

 as in Saxony, where a mass weighing 125 pounds 

 was discovered ; and another in the mines of Kens- 

 berg, which weighed 560 lbs. ; and Jameson mentions 

 a block of the same metal, discovered in the mine 

 of Schneebergh, in Saxony, which was so large that 

 Duke Albert descended into the mine and made use 

 of it as a dinner-table. This mass, when smelted, 

 produced 44,000 pounds of pure silver. 



Tin* is a while metal of considerable lustre, and 

 generally occurs massive, in the form of an oxide. 

 Sometimes it is found in fine brilliant crystals of 

 various forms. It only occurs in primitive rocks, 

 as in Cornwall (Eng.), Spain, Bohemia and Saxony, 

 Mexico and Peru, &c. Some of the Cornwall mines 

 extend many hundred feet under the sea, and it is 

 said that in one of them the noise of the waves and 

 the rolling of the pebbles can be distinctly heard, 

 so near has the excavation been carried to the bot- 

 tom of the ocean. 



Tin is employed for various purposes. Thin 

 sheets of iron, being dipped into melted tin, receive 

 a coat of the metal, and are thus prevented from 

 rusting. This, commonly called sheet tin, is the ar- 

 ticle of which the common tinware is made. Tin 



♦ Comstock^s Geology 



