SILVER. 
495 
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 se- 
condary earths silver often occurs, being found in 
chalk, slate, &c. but almost always mineralized by 
sulphur or arsenic. 
The gangue , as mineralogists call it, or the 
stony or earthy matter which surrounds and ad- 
heres to metals, is often formed of very different 
substances. Thus we find silver imbedded in quartz, 
jasper, petrosilex, hornstone, talc, chalk, terra pon- 
derosa, &c. 
It is a singular fact that the situations of gold- 
and silver-mines should often be diametrically op- 
posite 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 con- 
trary, raised to a great height towards the tops of 
mountains that are perpetually covered with ice 
and snow. It is thus situated in the alpine moun- 
tains of Europe and America ; and such 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 
