[ 4§9 ] 
whole faline concrete would have Been reduced into 
one compact body, of a fibrous texture. 
N° 1 4. Several fpecimens of the fame green vi- 
triol, which are more clofe and compact than the 
foregoing fpecimens (N° 13.) ; and in which the 
fibrous texture of the fait, thus generated by ger- 
mination, is more apparent than in the fpecimens 
(N° 12.) 
N° 1 5. Green vitriol germinating from martial 
pyrites. 
N° 16. Sundry fpecimens of pyrites, with green 
vitriol adhering thereto, or lodged in its crevices, 
where the falls fweliing, or continually increafing in 
bulk, aft as wedges, and moulder the pyrites- into 
powder. The pyrites, in this decayed ftate, appears 
black, from its bituminous and earthy parts re- 
mainingafter its faline principles have been feparated 
from it. Though in the fpecimens here exhibited* 
feme foffil coal may have been intermixed with the 
pyrites. The miners have called this decaying of the 
lulphurous ores of copper, iron, and other metals 
and femi-metals, the weathering of thefe ores, having 
obferved that this change or decompofition of thefe 
ores is brought about by the operations of common, 
air, and of the watery moifture to which they 
have been expofed. For the pyrites and other ful- 
phureous ores remain without change in the bowels 
of the earth, while lodged in places, where neither 
the air nor water can aft upon them. 
N° 17. Native alum from the coal-mines near 
Whitehaven. In thefe fpecimens the alum is found 
adhering to the ftone, from which it fhoots out, in 
Vol. LXIV. R r r very 
