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this acid butter were stored up against years of scarcity; but we 
read, ‘when the sour butter is too old, it loses in its acidity and 
weight, dries up, and acquires a rancid taste.’ The most re- 
markable reference to the substance under consideration, and 
one that serves to throw most light upon the subject, is that 
contained in Debe’s Description of the Faroe Isles in 1670; it is 
there called (according to the English translation) preserved 
tallow and ‘Rue tallow,’ and was thus treated: the tallow, prin- 
cipally obtained from sheep, was cut in pieces, and allowed to 
rot awhile; it was then rendered, and cast into large pieces, 
which ‘they dig and put in moist earth to keep it, it growing 
the better the longer it is kept, and when it is old and is cut, it 
tasteth like old cheese. The most able peasants have ever much 
endeavoured to bring together a great quantity of that tallow, 
so that a countryman had sometimes in the tallow dike (that is, 
a place in the earth where it is kept) above 100 loads, and this 
hath always been looked upon as the greatest riches of Feroe. 
For when sheep dye, such tallow is very necessary in the 
land, the longer it is kept being so much the better; and 
forreign pyrates having little desire to rob it from them. It 
may, therefore, not unreasonably be termed a hidden treasure, 
which rust doth not consume, nor thieves steal away.’ ”* 
Mr. David Moore and Dr. Aldridge made some remarks. 
Rey. J. H. Jellett read a Paper on the effect of the in- 
ternal fluidity of the earth on the length of the day. 
The researches of Mr. Hopkins have shown that the effect 
of the action of the sun and moon upon the spheroidal figure 
* “ Foerog, et Foeroa Reserata; that is, a Description of the Islands and Inhabi- 
tants of Foeroe. Written in Danish, by Lucas Jacobson Debes, M, A., and Provost 
of the Churches there. Englished by John Sterpin, Doctor of Physic.” London, 1676. 
