534 
TIN. 
mass. The quantity, however, is very small in pro- 
portion to the other materials, only from 150 to 
200 pounds of smelted tin being produced from 
45 thousand pounds of ore. Notwithstanding the 
extreme poverty of the mine it is very profitable, 
on account of the ease with which the metal is ob- 
tained, and the cheapness of labour in that country. 
In Bohemia there are some tin-mines which are 
sufficiently productive to make the working of them 
profitable. That of Flatten has been penetrated to 
the depth of eighty fathoms, and contains ten sepa- 
rate veins, which, however, are very near each other, 
and continue to run parallel till they pass a layer of 
clay forty fathoms below the surface. Immediately 
beneath this argillaceous bed the majority of the 
veins unite, and form three or four, from two to five 
fathoms long. They are very rich in crystallized 
tin ore, and are said to become more so as they de- 
crease in size. A phaenomenon worthy of observa- 
vation, and said to be pretty constant, is, that where 
several veins reunite, the mineral is always most 
abundant. 
There are mines scattered about Europe which 
contain a portion of this metal, but the quantity in 
general is very confined. It appears singular that 
in Siberia, which is so rich in other metals, not a 
single vein of tin should ever have been found, 
though every search has been made for it, in conse- 
quence of the high premiums offered by the Russian 
government for the discovery. 
The position of the mines from whence the an- 
