538 
LEAD. 
grounded suspicion of its having been produced by 
art, has as yet been adduced. 
Magellan quotes Bomare’s Mineralogy for a curi- 
ous specimen of native lead kept in the collection 
of Abbe Nolin at Paris, that had been found in the 
lead-mines at Pompean, near Rennes, in Brittany. 
This metal was very malleable, could be cut with a 
knife without crumbling, and easily melted over 
the flame of a candle. It weighed about two pounds, 
was imbedded in an earthy lead ore of a reddish co- 
lour, and had a slaty vein that went through it. 
Magellan thinks that these circumstances are suf- 
ficient to stamp it a natural production. 
Notice is likewise taken in the Philosophical 
Transactions for the year 177 2 , °f some pieces of 
native lead found in Wales ; and Wallerius assures 
us that this metal has been found in its metallic 
form in Poland. With these proofs of its exist- 
ence, besides others which might be adduced, we 
feel satisfied that native lead, though a very rare 
substance, may sometimes occur within the bowels 
of the earth. 
Among the lead ores in a mineralized state, that 
which is mixed with sulphur, and known by the 
name of Galena , is by far the most abundant. This 
lead ore is found in very considerable masses, both 
in primitive and secondary mountains, particularly 
in those which contain marble, where it is disposed 
either in thick veins or immense beds. It is ac- 
companied by almost every sort of matrix, and by 
all those metals which are likely to occur in the 
