MERCURY. 
553 
The mountain of Landsberg, four leagues to the 
south-west of Creutznach, affords a considerable 
quantity of mercury. The part which contains the 
mineral extends five hundred and fifty fathoms in 
length, and three hundred in breadth. It is nearly 
three centuries ago since this mine was first opened, 
and it is said to have yielded annually twenty thou- 
sand pounds of mercury. In the mine of Mcers- 
feld, near Creutznach, according to Collini, they find 
petrified mercurial fish spotted all over with cinna- 
bar. The fish are enclosed within black slate, and 
are extremely thin and brittle. 
The principal mine of mercury in South America 
is in the district of Guanca-Velica in Peru. It is 
near the top of one of the cordilleras, at the im- 
mense height of fourteen thousand perpendicular 
feet, and is immediately surmounted by a summit 
which rises four hundred fathoms above it. The 
town of Guanca-Velica, though situated in a bot- 
tom, and surrounded by high mountains, is itself 
near two thousand feet above the lowest plain. This 
mine, which for two centuries produced annually 
seven or eight thousand quintals of mercury, is now 
almost exhausted. 
The most striking property in this metal, and 
that which particularly distinguishes it from all the 
rest, is its fluidity. This it never loses in the ordi- 
nary temperature of our climates; but the natural 
cold has been sufficiently intense in Siberia to re- 
duce it to a solid and malleable state. Patrin as- 
sures us, that during the eight years he resided in 
