The most productive mines of cinnabar are in the palatinate of Germany, at Idria in Carniola, and at Almaden in Spain. Those of Idria are supposed to be more valuable than any of the others. Their first discovery, which was somewhat more than three hundred years ago, was made in a very extraordinary manner. This part of the country was then much inhabited by coopers; and one of the men, on retiring from work in the evening, placed a new tub under a dropping spring, to try if it would hold water; and, when he came in the morning, he found it so heavy that he could scarcely move it. Examining into the cause of this extraordinary circumstance, the man observed that it was owing to a shining and ponderous fluid which was at the bottom. The affair was noised abroad, and a society of persons was formed to search further, and discover the mine from which this quicksilver had flowed. Such was their success that the reigning Duke of Austria paid them a compensation for the discovery, and took the mine into his own possession. The greatest perpendicular depth of this mine is now more than 830 feet. It is descended by buckets, or by ladders placed obliquely in a zigzag direction. In some parts of the mine the pure metal flows in small streams, so that in six hours a man has been known to collect more than thirty─six pounds weight of it. In other parts it is found in a multitude of little drops, either in ores or in clay. The whole produce of the mine is said to exceed a hundred tons weight of mercury per annum. It has been asserted that, several years ago, in digging out clay for the foundation of a house opposite to the King’s Arms inn, in the street called Hyde─hill, in Berwick─upon─Tweed, a quantity of native mercury was discovered. The clay, when dug out, lay for some time in the place to which it was conveyed; and the mercury was observed to exude from the small fissures or cracks that were formed as it dried. It is said that, several years afterwards, in making some alteration in the yard of the same house, the workmen penetrated into the same bed of clay; and that it then appeared to be impregnated with native mercury, which ran out in small globules. Mercury is sometimes imported into Europe from Peru, and from the East Indies. The mode of extracting it from _cinnabar_ is said to be by mixing this ore either with pounded chalk, or with half its weight of iron filings, and distilling it in a stoneware retort. By this process the sulphur combines with the iron, and the mercury, in a state of purity, passes into the receiver.