488 Metals. MINER. 
with a metal lie fplendour, in thin flexible plates. Found 
near Deutchpilfen in Hungary, in thin broad Aiming 
plates, placed one over the other, fometimes. nearly an 
inch in thicknefs, in grey alumine. It gives a grey ftreak 
to paper, and has fomewhat the refemblance of common 
Molybdenum. It has fometimes a little iron mixed with 
it, and ufually yields twenty-three ounces of fiiver in a 
hundred-weight. 
10. Argentum vitreum, vitreous fiiver, or fulphat of 
fiiver : of a dark bluifh-grey colour ; eafily melting, and 
emitting during combuftion fulphurous flames and va¬ 
pours ; opake, very ponderous, foft, tenacious. Found 
in the mines of Siberia, Norway, Saxony, Bohemia, Hun¬ 
gary, Spain, and America; generally fuperficial, and run¬ 
ning like veins through other foflils. Its appearance is 
rarely maflive, but moll commonly in thin plates, granu¬ 
lar, capillary, arborefeent, or cryftallized in cubes or in 
double four or fix fided pyramids; internally it has more 
of a metallic lultre. 
This is the glaferz, or glafly ore, of the Germans. The 
term glaferz is fuppofed to be a corruption of glanzerz, or 
“ fliining ore ;” for the ore in quellion has not the leall 
refemblance to any thing like glafs, but has frequently a 
confiderable degree of metallic fplendour. The Englifli 
name, vitreous fiiver, is merely a translation of the word 
glaferz. It is the richeft of all the ores of fiiver; not only 
on account of the proportion of fiiver contained, which is 
85 per cent, but the eafe with which it is reduced. By a 
well-regulated heat, the metallic fiiver may be made to 
exude in a curled capillary form ; and the fulphuret of 
fiiver thus altered is occaflonally fold as native fiiver; 
fome of the moft beautiful forms of which it clofely re¬ 
fembles. Perhaps in fome inftances native filyer may 
have been occaflonally derived from a fimil'ar fource. The 
malleability of this fubftance, as being a metallic fulphu¬ 
ret, is very remarkable. It receives any imprelflon lb ac¬ 
curately, that it has been ufed for ftamping medals. 
11. Argentum fragile, or brittle fiiver ore : of a black 
lead-colour, without metallic luftre ; opake ; eafily melt¬ 
ing, with fulpliuric flames and vapours ; brittle. Found 
in the mines of Dauphiny, Saxony, Bohemia, Hungary, 
and Siberia ; and refembles the preceding, except in being 
rendered brittle by an admixture of iron and antimony. 
It is generally found maflive or difieminated, fometimes 
cryftallized in indiftindl and accumulated fix-fided prifms, 
or tables, or rhombs. Before the blowpipe, the fulphur 
and antimony evaporate, leaving a' button, which may be 
ieparated from the iron by fufion with nitre and borax. 
Specific gravity, 7 - 2o8. Contains fiiver 66’5, fulphur 12, 
antimony 10, iron 5, filex 1, arfenic and copper 0-5. 
12. Argentum nitens, or fliining fiiver: fhining, of a 
lead-colour, ponderous, lamellar, brittle, eafily melting. 
Found in the Korboiokinkfk mountains of Siberia, in the 
fiffures of hornftone rocks, in irregular lumps of various 
fizes. Its powder, when rubbed between the thumb and 
finger, gives a black colour to the lkin with a lead glofs. 
When heated, part is firft filled, and refembles fulphurated 
fiiver; the remainder is of much more difficult fufibility, 
and refembles black copper. It communicates a blue co¬ 
lour to nitric acid; and, when diffolved in it, depofits 
fulphur. Contains about fiiver 42, copper 21, fulphur 35. 
Thomfon. 
1 3: Argentum rubrum, or red fiiver: ponderous, red 
when feraped, a little fliining internally, decrepitating in 
the fire, and afterwards melting with an arfenical fmell. 
There are two varieties: a, light red ; ( 2 , dark red. Found 
in various mines of Peiu, Chili, France, Spain, Germany, 
Saxony, Hungary, See. with arfenic, galena, or other ores 
of fiiver ; in mafies, or difieminated ; fometimes ftalabliti- 
cal or botryoidal, or cryftallized in fmall prifms, or aci- 
cular pyramids, or radiated in a ftellate manner. It dif¬ 
fers much in degree of tranfparency, colour, texture, and 
fprm. It is friable or brittle, but fo loft as to be cut with 
a knife. When broken, it has a glafly appearance ; and, 
•when feraped with a knife, the particles appear fcarlet. 
L L O G Y. Metals. 
It becomes eleftric by friftion, but only when infulated ; 
and is foluble in nitric acid without effervefcence. It 
detonates with nitre when thrown into a red-hot crucible, 
and becomes then capillary fiiver. Specific gravity, from 
5 - 44 to 5’69. Contains fiiver 56, antimony 16, fulphur 15, 
oxygen 12, and a little arfenic. Klaproth. 
14. Argentum album, or grey fiiver ore : opake, with 
a metallic luftre, compact, ponderous ; of a pale lead- 
colour externally and when feraped ; emitting fulphure- 
ous and arfenical vapours when burnt; brittle; Found 
in the mines of Saxony, Bohemia, Hungary, Sicily, &c. 
generally imhedded in quartz and other minerals. It 
contains generally not more than about 15 per cent, of 
fiiver ; the remainder being made up of fulphur, arfenic, 
copper, and iron, in various proportions. When feraped, 
it exhibits a brighter furface, but of the fame colour. It 
breaks into indeterminate fragments, and is of a flat tex¬ 
ture. It is generally found of a common form, rarely 
cryftallized ; is brittle, but fo foft as to be cut with a knife. 
Plate II. is copied from Knorr’s Delices de la Nature. 
Fig. 1 is a beautiful ore of gold, with leaves of pure gold 
on quartz, of the colour of amethyft and emerald, and 
covered fuperficially here and there with an ore of red 
and black fiiver. It is from the mines of Cremnitz in 
Hungary, and is a very fine lpecimen. The yellow fur- 
face which diredlly meets the eye is the gold-leaf exprefled 
from the quartz; and the gold is often fo pure and fo 
dudtile, that it needs no purifying. The leaves are com¬ 
monly about the thicknefs of mufic-paper, but fometimes 
as thick as a ducat. The metallic juice (fays ICnorr) 
prefles the metal out of the ftone, and thus it fpreads on 
the furface in broad lamina, or in threads or fringes, or 
in ftripes, and may be taken off. The quartz, upon which 
this gold leaf is found, is a milky cryftalline ftone, not 
much tranfparent, and of no regular form, imbued with 
a metallic vapour, either violet or green; that which is of 
a violet-colour is called amethyftine quartz, and the green 
is called emerald-quartz. The black and red l'pots in this 
figure arife from the fiiver with which the ore is fuperfi¬ 
cially covered. The gold becomes pale in proportion to 
the quantity of fiiver that is prefent from the ore ; but 
the gold from the mines in Hungary is generally pale. 
Fig. 2 is another ore of gold from Hungary, and probably 
from Schemnitz; as the ftone is a grey fpar fuperficially 
covered with little fpangles of gold and fiiver, and mixed 
with an ore of vitreous fiiver. Thefe bits of gold iflue 
from two parts of the ftone, fide by fide, in thin pointed 
laminae; and on the lower furface appears a cavity in¬ 
cluding grains of gold in an aggregated form. The rell 
of the furface is the grey fpar, luperficially covered here 
and there with black fiiver; and the pofterior black part 
exhibits the vitreous ore of fiiver. We have fpoken of 
fiiver ore in delcribing thele two fpecimens of gold : but 
it ihould be noted, that an ore always takes its name from 
the metal that predominates, though lometimes the lame 
piece contains three or more different metals. Fig. 3 is 
a beautiful fpecimen of dendritical fiiver, ifluing pure 
out of the ftone, found in the country of Wirtemberg. 
When we meet with fuch arborefeent forms in cabinets 
and colleftions, we are apt to lufpeft (and often not 
without reafon) that art has been employed to aflilt na¬ 
ture. The above, however, is given by Kn'orr as a ge¬ 
nuine natural fpecimen. Fig. 6 is another of the fame 
kind. Fig; 4 is another fpecimen of dendritical fiiver, 
the arborefcence covering the ftone luperficially. The 
ftone or earth is a foliated fpar, and the fiiver lies in a 
circle round an elevated part of the ftone ; and its ramifi¬ 
cations relemble the cryllals of lalts. Fig. 5 is a varie¬ 
gated ore, covered fuperficially with much pure yellowilh 
fiiver; here and there appears a black and white ore of 
fiiver. Fig. 7 is a vitreous ore with black and capillary 
fiiver. The vitreous ore comes very near to native fiiver, 
when it is free from earth and mixed with fulphur only; 
and then it much refembles melted tin or lead, and is 
riot lefs malleable and feiflile. The earth is a compact 
ipar, 
