i A SYSTEM OF 
ores, but to profecute them to the very workihop 
of Nature herfelf, where they may be made with 
more certainty, though in a narrow compafs ; I 
mean, in the very mines, quarries, and diggings, 
‘of the ftrata of the earth. For I myfelf have 
been aftoniflied to hear that the flint is faid to be 
produced by a calcareous fubftance, only becaufe 
it is found in the ftrata of chalk in England, and 
in the limeftone at Kinnekulle in the province of 
Weftergottland in Sweden : and I am farther of 
opinion, that a ftone, feparated from its bed, 
and thrown loofe on the furface of the earth, 
does not difcover more marks of increafe, than 
do bones difperfed in a churchyard. 
SECT. II. 
The bodies belonging to the mineral kingdom 
are divided into four different claffes : viz. 
I. Earth, or thofe fubftances which are not 
du6i:ile, are moftly indiffoluble in water or 
oil, and preferve their conftitution in a ftrong 
heat*. 
- 2. Inflammables, which can be diffolvedin 
oils, but not in water, and are inflammable. 
3. Salts : thefe diffolve in water, and give it 
a tafte ; and when the quantity of water 
required to keep them in diffolution is eva- 
porated, they concrete again into folid and 
angular bodies. 
4. Metals are the heavieft of all bodies hi- 
therto known ; fome of which are malleable, 
• The Author, by Earths, does not mean (ilriftly fpeak- 
ing) only Earths, but includes all the kinds of ftones orfof* 
fils not inflammable, faline, or metallic. D, C. 
and 
