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those above described. Hear a place calfed Capon, I rode down a 

 hill covered with rich irb<j ore in such profu^iou; that ton« might have 

 been gathered from the sjiiirface.. Proceeding a short distance farther 

 we arrived at a house, the owner of which, we afterwards understood, 

 possessed a topaz-niine in tlae neighbourhood. Tiie mention of a 

 mme of topazes excited' my eucriosity*, as it gave me the idea of a 

 vein worked under-ground, and containing those substances in the 

 matrix as originally formed. On expressing to the owner my desire 

 to see the works, he kindly undertook to accompany me to the spot. 

 After walking about half a mile up the mountain just mentioned, I 

 was. shewn two ^eaks or slips, in which my guide informed nie were 

 the liopaz mines.. We entered one of them, which was in extent 

 little short of two acres ; the argillaceous, schistus, which formed the 

 upper stratujii, appeared in a variety of stages, the greater part 

 migrating into micaceous schistus. In one part I observed two; 

 negroes poking in the little soft veins, which the slips disclosed, with 

 a piece of rusty iron, probably part of an old hoop ; and on en- 

 quiring what they were about, I was informed they were the miners, 

 searching for topazes. I took one of their instruments, and on using 

 it as they did, found these veins to contain a very minute micaceous 

 substance approaching to earthy talc, also some quartz, and large 

 crystal of specular iifon ore. I had the good fortune to find two or 

 three topazes, which, as they had only one pyramid each, and ap- 

 peared fractured, I judged to be out of their original place. It had 

 hitherto, been my opinion, that all the topazes which I had seen at, 

 Rio de Janeiro, or elsewhere, and which were of similar form to 

 these> had been broken from the matrix by the miners ; I now, there- 

 fore fully expected to meet with some having double pyramids, but 

 to my great disappointment all that I found were entirely detached. 

 From a great quantity (at least a cart load) of inferior topazes, 

 which were afterwards shewn to me in the owner's house, (and any 

 number of which I might have taken away,) I could not select one 

 with a double pyramid. They informed me that sometimes, but 



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