526 Dr. pallas’s Account of 
parts of Siberia, and in which thofe miners, of fome 
former and hitherto unknown nation inhabiting thefe 
parts, moftly worked upon copper ores. Nor could fo large 
a mafs ever have been formed in the fmall kilns of thele 
people, which never could yield more than 50 or 60 
pounds of metal at a time ; whereas this mafs, in its firft 
condition, weighed above 1680 Ruffian pounds. It is 
throughout of the nature you may fee in the fpecimen 
which M. drury will deliver to you. The iron is formed 
in a coarfe, fpungy texture, moftly pure, perfectly flexi- 
ble, and fit to be worked to fmall tools by a moderate 
fire; but in a more violent one, and chiefly being melted 
down, it becomes dry and brittle, refolves in grains, and 
will no more flick together, nor extend under the ham- 
mer. In its natural date, the iron itfelf is incrufted with a 
kind of varnifh, which has preferved it from ruft; but, 
wherever this is loft, or the iron bars broken, ruft comes 
on very readily. The cavities formed by the iron are 
equally filled up with a kind of fluor , which for the moft 
part is of a clean, tranfparent, amber colour, cuts glafs, 
has none of the properties of fcoria , and forms, according 
to the hollows it fills, various roundifh grains or drops, 
very gloffy and clean, on their furface, having one or 
more flat furfaces. This fluor is extremely brittle, and 
thus, by cutting off any part of the mafs, this fubftance 
is loft, and comes off partly in grains, and partly in form 
of a coarfe powder of vitrelcent matter. The whole mafs 
ha,s no regularity of form, but rcfembles a large, oblong, 
fome what flattifli pebble, and is coated on the outfidc 
1 with 
