The silver ore is not, as was at first imagined, confined to the mountain between Königsberg and the river Jordal, but extends its veins for several miles throughout the adjacent districts, in consequence of which new mines have been undertaken in several places, and prosperously carried on. One of the richest and most ancient of the mines, named “Old God’s blessing,” has sometimes, in the space of a week, yielded several hundred pounds’ weight of rich ore. The astonishing depth of this mine, which is not less than a hundred and eighty fathoms, perpendicularly, fills the mind of the beholder with amazement; and the circumference at the bottom forms a clear space of several hundreds of fathoms. Here the sight of thirty or forty fires, burning on all sides in this gloomy cavern, and continually fed to soften the stone in the prosecution of the labors, seems, according to the notions commonly entertained, an apt image of hell; and the swarms of miners, covered with soot, and bustling about in habits according to their several employments, may well remind one of so many evil spirits; more especially when, at a given signal that the mine is to be sprung in this or that direction, they exclaim aloud: “=Berg-livet, berg-livet=!” “Take care of your lives.” [Illustration: SILVER MINE AT KÖNIGSBERG.] The gold mines of Cremnitz, in Hungary, lie forty miles south of the Carpathian hills; and twenty miles further to the south are the silver mines of Shemnitz. These are called mining towns; and the former is the principal, its rich ores being found in what is styled metallic rock. Its mines also produce a certain proportion of silver. Hungary is beside enriched by a mineral peculiar to itself, or one, at least, which has not hitherto been discovered elsewhere, namely, the _opal_, a gem preferred to all others by the oriental nations. The opal mines are situated at Ozerwiniza, where they are found in a hill consisting of decomposed porphyry, a few fathoms beneath the surface. Their produce is of various qualities, from the opaque-white, or semi-opal, to the utmost refulgence of the lively colors by which this noble gem is distinguished. Transylvania and the Bannet, contain numerous and valuable mines, consisting chiefly of gray gold ore, and white gold ore. The finest gold is found at Olapian, not far from Zalathna, intermixed with gravel and sand. The sands of the Rhine, also, in various places contain traces of gold.