COPPER. 183 
will be seen to shoot up from it somewhat in the form 
of a shrub. This apparent vegetation is popularly called 
the tree of Diana. 
2. A production nearly similar may be obtained by 
adding a little quicksilver to a solution of nitrat of silver 
in water. 
3. Drop upon a clean plate of copper a small quan- 
tity of solution of lunar caustic, or nitrat of silver. In 
a short time a metallic vegetation will be perceptible, 
branching out in pleasing forms, and in various di- 
rections. 
230. COPPER is a red or orange-coloured metal, about 
nine times heavier than water. It is the most sonorous of all 
metals, and, except iron, the most elastic. 
It is found under a great variety of forms, sometimes, in 
masses of pure metal, but, more frequently, in combination with 
other substances, particularly sulphur. 
There are valuable copper mines in every quarter of 
the world; and the use of copper is probably of greater 
antiquity than that of any other metal. It is mentioned 
in the Old Testament ; and, at a very early period, do- 
mestic utensils and instruments of war were made of 
bronze, or a compound of copper and tin. Even during 
the Trojan war, as we learn from Homer, the combat- 
ants had no other armour than what was made of bronze. 
The Greek and Roman sculptors are said to have exe- 
cuted fine works of art in porphyry, granite, and other 
hard minerals, by means of copper instruments ; whence 
historians have been induced to believe that the ancients 
possessed the secret of rendering this metal as hard as 
steel : some of them even imagined that they had the 
means of converting it into steel. 
Copper is very abundant in several parts of Great 
Britain, particularly in the island of Anglesea. The 
copper mines of Anglesea are situated on the top of a 
mountain, and form an enormous cavity more than five 
hundred yards long, a hundred yards broad, and a 
hundred yards deep. The ore is got from the mine by 
pickaxes, and blasting with gunpowder. It is then 
