SILVER. 
long known to mineralogists ky the name of 
corneous silver, is found in irregular masses 
of a greyish colour, frequently opaque, but 
sometimes semi-transparent. It is soft, and 
very fusible. 
Native silver is generally found in irregu- 
lar shapes ; sometimes in masses of no de- 
terminate form, sometimes branched, occa- 
sionally in capillary filaments, and not un- 
commonly in leaves. Thus it appears in 
most mines, and particularly in those of Si- 
beria, where Patrin tells us he never met 
with it crystallized. It is found in the 
mines of Peru in a vegetable form, imitat- 
ing the leaves of fern. This variety of 
figure in native silver is occasioned by a 
vast number of little eight-sided crystals, 
so disposed upon each other as to give the 
whole the appearance of a vegetable. The 
curved cylindrical filaments, in which form 
silver is sometimes found, are of various 
sizes, from the thickness of a finger to the 
diminutive size of a hair. Native silver, as 
W'e have observed, is seldom found pure, 
but is generally mixed with other metals ; 
such as gold, copper, mercury, iron, lead, 
&c. This last metal almost always con- 
tains a portion of silver, though frequently 
so small as not to be worth the expense of 
separating it. In the reign of Edward the 
First nearly 1600 pounds weight of silver 
were obtained, in the course of three years, 
from a mine in Devonshire, which had 
been discovered about the year 900. The 
lead mines in Cardiganshire have, at differ- 
ent periods, afforded great quantities of sil- 
ver. Sir Hugh Middleton is said to have 
cleared from them 2000 pounds in a month. 
The same mines yielded, about the year 
1745, eighty ounces of silver out of every 
ton of lead. The lead ores from Brunghill 
and Skekorn produced also a considerable 
quantity of silver. The lead only, in one of 
the smelting-houses at Holywell, in Flint- 
shire, produced no less than 31,521 ounces, 
or 3126| pounds of silver, from the year 
1754 to 1776. “ There are some lead-ores 
in this country,” says Dr. Watson, “ which, 
though very poor in lead, contain between 
three and four hundred ounces of silver in a 
ton of that metal. It is commonly observed, 
that the poorest lead-ores yield the most 
silver, so that a large quantity of silver is 
probably thrown away in England, from 
not having the poorest sort of lead-ores pro- 
perly assayed.” 
Silver in its mineral state occurs massive, 
disseminated, in blunt cornered pieces, in 
plates^ and in membranes ; , it is said to oc- 
cur also in Spanish America in rolled 
pfeces. Its crystallizations are very vari- 
ous,. as the cube, octahedron, prism, pyra- 
midal, &c.: the crystals are small and mi- 
croscopic. It is chiefly found in primitive 
earths, especially in those which are depo- 
sited in beds, though it is not confined to 
these alone. It is very rarely met with in 
granite, but not uncommonly in the fissures 
of micaceous rocks, and in other places of a 
similar nature, but of more recent formation. 
In the secondary earths silver often occurs, 
being found in chalk, slate, &c.; but almost 
always mineralized by sulphur or arsenic. 
It is a singular fact that the situations of 
gold and silver mines should often be dia- 
metrically opposite in point of temperature. 
Gold is common in the hottest parts of the 
earth, while we generally find silver mines 
in the cold regions. Thus, the chief parts 
of the world where silver is to be met with 
are, Sweden, Norway, and the higher lati- 
tudes near the pole : if we find it in hot 
climates, it is seldom on level ground ; but, 
on the contrary, raised to a great height to- 
wards the tops of mountains that are per- 
petually covered with ice and snow. It is 
thus situated in the alpine mountains of Eu- 
rope and America ; and snch are the mines 
of Allemont in France, and those of Potosi 
in the Andes. The principal silver mine in 
Europe is that of Konigsberg, in Norway, 
to the north of Christiana. This is the 
richest, the most important, and one of the 
most singular mines in that quarter of the 
globe. The district in which it is situated 
is mountainous ; and the mines are divided 
into superior and inferior, on account of 
their relative position. The earth is com- 
posed of beds nearly in a vertical position, 
and running from north to south. Some 
are composed of quartz mixed with mica, of , 
granite, and of chalk : while others are form- 
ed of whitish-grey quartz, mixed with fine 
blackish mica, or else consist of ferruginous 
rock. These beds are of very considerable 
thickness, and contain a great quantity of 
native as well as of mineralized silver. The 
veins are richer in mineral, and their pro- 
duce more considerable,where they traverse 
the beds of ferruginous rock, than in any 
other part. The most remarkable mine of 
silver in Spain is that of Guadalcanal, in 
Andalusia, which was formerly very rich, 
and well known to the Romans. It is situ- 
ated in tlie Sierra Morena, or black moun- 
tain, on the confines of Andalusia and Es- 
tramadura, fifteen leagues to the north of 
Seville, and several miles to the north-cast 
