INTRODUCTION. Hi 
eonfefs I have found here a mining- 
fchool, and from being a teacher am 
become a fcholar.” And foon after he 
fays, “ I could never have written any 
thing folid in chemiftry, without having 
feen fo much of Cornwall.” This our 
German countryman made the molt im¬ 
portant improvements in working mines, 
and extracting metals in Cornwall: 
among other improvements, he firft in¬ 
troduced there the machines for drain¬ 
ing mines, and the ufe of pit-coals for 
the melting of minerals. 
Since his time thefe mines have been 
only rarely vilited and defcribed by fo¬ 
reign naturalifts, fo that the knowledge 
of the foffils belonging to them is not yet 
fo general as it merits. In the works 
of Englifh authors, e, g. Woodward’s 
Hiftory of Foffils, and Borlafe’s Hiftory 
of Cornwall, the foffils of Cornwall 
have been treated of, but not with fuf- 
ficient mineralogical, and with Hill 
lefs chemical knowledge, which in the 
B z times 
