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fnedical men. I sent a parcel of it home, but by some accident oY 

 other it was lost in the Custom-house. 



In many parts of our route we might have collected insects, but 

 they require so^much attention and care in preserving them for con- 

 veyance so great a distance, that I gave up the pursuit. It ap- 

 peared to me extraordinary, that I had not, since my arrival in 

 Brazil, seen (except in the cabinets of the curious) more than one 

 diamond-beetle, though I had frequently searched for them in almost 

 every variety of plantation. • 



During my absence from Villa Rica one of my soldiers had pro- 

 cured me a full pound of native bismuth in lumps, none of which 

 exceeded an ounce in weight. It is frequently found in this state 

 covered with a yellow oxide, which proves that it is out of its place, 

 as it originally occurs in veins. Many pieces .of . pyrites, and various 

 iron ores, were also brought me. ../jujsH .Sc:^ ' hifsi o^'ionut, 



I had commissioned some persons to collect land shells for me 

 during my absence, and was now to my great gratification pre- 

 sented with six, of a fine chesnut brown colour, with beauti- 

 ful pink mouths, belonging to a new variety of the helix. Having 

 kept them a few days, without taking out the animals, I was sur- 

 prised to find that one of the latter had laid two eggs, I had not 

 before imagined that they were oviparous. I took one of the shells 

 . in my hand, while the animal was crawling, when it immediately 

 folded itself, and entered very quickly, in which exertion another 

 egg was deposited in the mouth of the shell. All the eggs were 

 about the size of a sparrow's. These were the only land shells I had 

 seen on this journey. 



On resuming my visit to the mint I took an early opportunity of 

 stating to the acting governors my ideas respecting a new regulation 

 for supplying mercury to the miners. One great impediment to the 

 use of that metal, so essential in certain branches of the process, 

 was the exorbitant price at which it was exclusively sold by the apo- 

 thecaries, generally upwards of two shillings the ounce. I suggested 



