silver. From which and other Circumstances my Author gathers; That by the warmth of the place, the Noble Metalline Spirits, (Sulphureous and Mercurial) were carri’d from the neighbouring Galleries or Vaults, through other smaller Cracks and Clefts, into that Cavity, and there collected as in a close Chamber or Cellar; whereinto when they were gotten, they did in process of time settle into the forementioned precious mass of Metal.
The other Germane Relation is of That great Traveller and Laborious Chymist Johannes (not Georgus) Agricola; who in his notes upon what Poppius has written of Antimony, Relates, that when he was among the Hungarian Mines in the deep Groves, he observ’d that there would often arise in them a warm Steam (not of that malignant sort which the Germains call Shwadt, which (sayes he) is a meer poyson, and often suffocates the Diggers, which fasten’d it self to the Walls; and that coming again to review it after a couple of dayes, he discern’d that it was all very fast, and glistering; whereupon having collected it and Distill’d it per Retortam, he obtain’d from it a fine Spirit, adding, that the Mine-Men inform’d him, that this Steam or Damp of the English Mine (retaining the dutch Term) would at last have become a Metal, as Gold or Silver.