strictest; Candour and Integrity; beingbound so to do by certain Ties of particularActs of Friendship, as well as Service,which you have vouchsafed to confer uponme.

I have told you before, and am sorry Ifind myself under a Necessity to repeat it,that, after the strictest Enquiry I have beenable to make since I have been in theseParts, and the best Judgment I can formfrom the mineral Hsttory, I cannot helpconcluding, that the Art of Mining, so farfrom any Improvements having been madetherein, is less perfect than it was whenfirst it was revived in the Reign of QueenElizabeth ; to testify the Truth of whichAssertion, I call upon the Directors orStewards of the Mines here as Witnesses,who cannot point out the least Discoverymade towards the Perfection of it, butmust confess, that a great many useful oneshave been lost, as must be obvious to every> impartial Judge ; without farther reasoningon the Subject, they need only recollect awell known Truth,- that our modern Mi-ners do not chuse to venture their Skill insuch Mountains, as are out of the R^ngeand Boundaries of those,. where their Pre-decessors made Discoveries; nay, they areperfectly amazed, and ridicule the Personthat affirms, even after the most solid Rea-sons given, that other Grounds contain

Fossils