11 
INTRODUCTION. 
pounds, and of thofe of copper to 
140,000 pounds fterling j and there is 
flill ‘an abundant (tore of both metals to 
laft for many centuries. 
The peculiarity of moll of the Cor- 
nilh foiUIs affords the naturalifl a fruit¬ 
ful fubjedt of enquiry, and rich mate¬ 
rials for the increafe of geological and 
mineralogical knowledge. Becher, per¬ 
haps, the moil experienced mineralogift 
and miner of his time, who had flu- 
died fubterraneous nature in the mines 
of Hungary and Germany for many years, 
acknowledges freely that he flill found 
a great deal to learn in Cornwall. He 
expreffes himfelf (in the remarkable de¬ 
dicatory epiflle to the famous Boyle, of 
his Mineralogical Alphabet, which he 
wrote at Truro, in Cornwall,) in the fol¬ 
lowing manner: “ The earth is here 
fo abundant in different kind of foffils, 
that I believe there is no place in 
the world which excels Cornwall in 
the quantity and variety of them: and I 
confefs 
