considerable Train. Some did believe, that it
approach'd again to us. But having beheld it with a _Telescope_, I soon
said, that it was joyned with two small Stars, whereof one was pretty
bright, which I had already seen, on _February_ 28. and 29. And this
conjunction gave the _Comet_ that brightness, as it happens to most of the
Stars of the fifth and sixth magnitude, where 2. or 3. or more are
conjoyned, which perhaps would shew but faintly single, though by reason of
their proximity to one another, they appear but one Star. Hence it was,
that I assured my friends here, that the following daies we should no more
see it so bright, because I knew, that there were none such small bright
Stars in the way, which by my former observations I conjectured it was to
move.

* * * * *

_An Observation imparted to the Noble Mr. _Boyle_, by Mr. _David Thomas_,
touching some particulars further considerable in the Monster mentioned in
the first Papers of these _Philosophical Transactions_._

Upon the strictest inquiry, I find by one, that saw the Monstrous Calf and
stone, within four hours after it was cut out of the Cows belly, that the
Breast of the Calf was not stony (as I wrote) but that the skin of the
Breast and between the Legs and of the Neck (which parts lay on the smaller
end of the stone) was very much thicker, than on any other part, and that
the Feet of the Calf were so parted as to be like the Claws of a Dog. The
stone I have since seen; it is bigger at one end {21} than the other; of no
plain _Superficies_, but full of little cavities. The stone, when broken,
is full of small peble stones of an Ovall figure: its colour is gray like
free-stone, but intermixt with veins of yellow and black. A part of it I
have begg'd of Dr. _Haughten_ for you, which I have sent to _Oxford_,
whither a more exact account will be conveyed by the same person.

* * * * *

_Extract of a Letter, lately written from _Venice_ by the Learned Doctor
_Walter Pope_, to the Reverend Dean of _Rippon_, Doctor _John Wilkins_,
concerning the Mines of Mercury in _Friuli_; and a way of producing _Wind_
by the fall of _Water_._

The mines of _Mercury_ in _Friuli_, a Territory belonging to the
_Venetians_, are about a days Journey and a half distant from _Goritia_
Northwards, at a place call'd _Idria_, scituated in a Valley of the _Julian
Alps_. They have been, as I am inform'd, these 160. y