Alexandria Gazette & Daily Advertiser

THE INDIANA SILVER MINE.

A paragraph announcing the discovery of a silver mine in the state of Indiana, has been for some time circulating through the newspapers of the United States. Within a few weeks, specimens of the ore referred to, and a metallic mass, having nearly the color of silver, have been brought to the Western museum by different persons. The managers directed me to make an examination of both, and publish the result, this I have done and the products of analysis as well as the ore may be seen in the museum. The ore is common galena, or sulphuret of lead, exactly similar to the mines of St. Genevieve, the metallic mass said to have been extracted from the specimen of the same ore, was an artificial alloy of tin and copper nearly in the proportions in which they exist in bell metal. As the examination was conducted with sufficient care to detect the smallest particle of silver, and as none was discovered, it seems to be a correct conclusion, that a fraud has been practised by some person for the purpose of speculation.

R. BEST, Curator.

West. Museum, Cincinnati, Aug. 31, 1820.

From the New-York Statesman.