going or returning. Near Villette, on the
left of the road, there is a brecciated marble,
once much esteemed, and known under
the name of Breche de Tarentaise, It contains
black spots, disseminated in a deep
wine-red ground. Cipoline marble, or white
marble, with veins of serpentine, is found
on the right of the road at Longfroy, but
the quarries are not worked at present. Several
mines of anthracite occur in this valley.
I had less reason to regret not having
the opportunity of seeing them, having
visited several similar ones in the valley of
the Doron, on the western declivities of
the same mountains. The mines of Pesey
are situated on a mountain on the right of
the road, near the foot of a glacier, and
are upwards of 5000 feet above the level
of the sea. The ore is a dark fine-grained
argentiferous galena, or sulphuret of lead,
with a small portion of antimony and manganese
; it is disseminated in strings and
nests in the matrix of quartz. I was informed
at the smelting-house at Conflans,
where the silver is separated, that it contained
about sixty ounces of silver in a ton.
According to the account of M. Nicholas
de Robillant, general inspector of mines to
S IL V E R M IN E S . 239
the king of Sardinia, published in the Mémoires
of the Royal Academy of Sciences
at Turin, 1785, these mines yielded annually
about 4000 marcs of silver, and
from 30,000 to 40,0000 quintals of lead ;
but the veins grew less productive, and in
1792, the value of the total produce was
estimated at only 40,000 francs. The works
were for some time discontinued, but when
the French government established the
School of Mines at Moutiers, mining operations
were renewed with great activity,
and are at present continued by the Sardinian
government. From their great elevation,
and the severity of the climate in
winter, these mines can only be worked in
the summer months. It is a little remarkable
that the mines of Pesey were first discovered
by the English in 1714, and worked
by an English company from the year 1742
to 1760, when they were claimed by the
chamber of the counts of Turin, and transferred
to a company of Savoyards.
There are some veins of sulphuret of antimony
and sulphuret of copper, and also
of grey argentiferous copper ore, in various
parts of the Tarentaise, but none of them
appear to have been extensively worked.
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