f wide distribution and is the commonest of the ores of
copper. It occurs in metalliferous veins, often in association with
iron-pyrites, chalybite, blende, &c., and in Cornwall and Devon, where
it is abundant, with cassiterite. The large deposits at Falun in Sweden
occur with serpentine in gneiss, and those at Montecatini, near Volterra
in the province of Pisa, serpentine and gabbro. At Rammelsberg in the
Harz it forms a bed in argillaceous schist, and at Mansfield in
Thuringia it occurs in the Kupferschiefer with ores of nickel and
cobalt. Extensive deposits are mined in the United States, particularly
at Butte in Montana, and in Namaqualand, South Africa. Well-crystallized
specimens are met with at many localities; for example, formerly at
Wheal Towan (hence the name towanite, which has been applied to the
species) in the St Agnes district of Cornwall, at Freiberg in Saxony,
and Joplin, Missouri. (L. J. S.)

COPPICE, or COPSE (from an O. Fr. _copeis_ or _coupeis_, from Late Lat.
_colpare_, to cut with a blow; _colpas_, the Late Lat. for "blow," is a
shortened form of _colapus_ or _colaphus_, adapted from the Gr. [Greek:
kolaphos]), a small plantation or thicket of planted or self-sown trees,
which are cut periodically for use or sale, before the trees grow into
large timber. Whether naturally or artificially grown the produce is
looked on by the English law as _fructus industrialis_. The tenant for
life or years may appropriate this produce (see _Dashwood_ v. _Magniac_,
1891, 3 Ch. 306).

COPRA (a Spanish and Portuguese adaptation of the Malay _kopperah_, and
Hindustani _khopra_, the coco-nut), the dried broken kernel of the
coco-nut from which coco-nut oil is extracted by boiling and pressing.
Copra is the form in which the product of the coco-nut is exported for
commercial purposes (see COCONUT PALM).

COPROLITES (from Gr. [Greek: kopros], dung, and [Greek: lithos], stone),
the fossilized excrements of extinct animals. The discovery of their
true nature was made by Dr William Buckland, who observed that certain
convoluted bodies occurring in the Lias of Gloucestershire had the form
which would have been produced by their passage in the soft state
through the intestines of reptiles or fishes. These bodies had long been
known as "fossil fir cones" and "bezoar stones." Buckland's conjecture
that they were of faecal origin, and similar to the _album grecum_ or
excrement of hyaenas, was confirmed