84 
THE PRINCIPAL FLOOR. 
Gold. 
Case 23 . — The collection of gold ores is headed by several 
specimens from Russia. In all probability the auriferous tracts 
of the Uralian mountains were worked by the Scythians ; and 
the Arimaspi of Herodotus, a people who are fabled to have had 
but one eye, and to have taken the gold away by violence from 
the Griffins, may have been, as Humboldt suggests, this nomadic 
people. Gmelin describes the ancient gold works which he 
discovered in the district ; and Murchison speaks of great piles 
of ancient drift or gravel which have been removed for the 
extraction of the gold. 
Several specimens have been contributed from the American 
mines in California, Nevada, Colorado, Alaska, &c. It will be 
remembered that a large mass of auriferous quartz from the 
Californian workings is placed in the Hall (No. 162), and 
described at p. 44. Other specimens are from Mexico, Brazil, 
Columbia (New Granada), &c. 
The long-worked gold mines of Hungary and Transylvania 
are represented by several specimens. 
The “ Gold Coast ” of West Africa has long been celebrated 
for its gold, and a nugget brought from Ashantee at the 
conclusion of the war is here exhibited. 
Platinum. 
Case 23 . — This metal is obtained principally from detrital 
deposits in the Ural mountains, especially in the territories of 
the Demidoff family, and appears to have been derived from the 
disintegration of serpentine rocks. The largest nugget ever 
found weighed 21 lbs. troy, and is here represented by a 
model. For the use of platinum see p. 56. An arsenide of 
platinum, from Canada, has been described as Sperrylite ; but 
elsewhere the platinum is found almost exclusively in a native 
condition. Osmividium is a native alloy of the rare metals 
iridium and osmium, occurring in association with platinum. 
Tellurium. 
Case 23 . — The few minerals which contain tellurium occur, 
in limited quantities, with the gold and antimony ores of 
Transylvania, and are also found in the Western States of 
North America (Colorado and California). 
The native metal is now exceedingly rare, but at one time it 
was found in rather large quantities in Transylvania, and was 
smelted to extract the small quantity of gold which it contains. 
In 1782 Muller and Reichenstein showed that the ores of 
tellurium contained a peculiar metal ; Klaproth confirmed this. 
Sir H. Davy examined some of the oxides, but to Berzelius we 
are especially indebted for our knowledge of tellurium. 
Mercury. 
Case 23 . — This metal is occasionally found native in small 
globules on cinnabar, or in the fissures of the gangue, but the 
