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Salt Wells and Springs of htflammable Gas in China. 



The following details which appear deserving of the atten- 

 tion of naturalists, have been printed in No. 16 of the Annales 

 de V Association de la Propagation de la Foi, a periodical work, 

 containing the letters of the Bishops and Missionaries of the 

 missions to the two worlds, and which forms a continuation to the 

 Lettres edijiantes. M. Drufesse, bishop of Tabraca, who died 

 in the exercise of his apostolic functions, had said a few words 

 respecting the salt springs ; but the subject is treated much 

 more at length in the number mentioned above, by M. Imbert. 

 The geographical position of the country in which these wells 

 occur, is determined in an accurate manner by M. Klaproth, 

 whose authority gives additional credibility to the account of 

 the missionaries. We shall content ourselves with giving the 

 facts, without following the opinions or adopting the terms of 

 the author. 



The greatest number of salt wells and springs of inflammable 

 gas, of which we here speak, occur, according to M. Klaproth, 

 in the districts of Young-Hian and Wei-yuan-Hian, in the de- 

 partment of Kia-Ting-Fou, in the Chinese province of Szu-Tch- 

 houan on the borders of Thibet. There are several other wells 

 of the same nature in the other districts of this department, and 

 in the other neighbouring districts situated to the east of the 

 great chain of mountains, covered with perpetual snow, which 

 traverses the eastern part of Szu-Tchhouan from south to 

 north. 



According to the report of M. Imbert, there are in the vici- 

 nity of the town of Ou-Thouang-Khiao, several thousands of 



1680. The Bocar, the origin of our common pig, occasionally occurred in a 

 wild state till about the same period. According to Dr Fleming (" British 

 Animals" in loco), the skulls and horns of the Ox tribe found in our peat- 

 mosses and marl-pits, are chiefly those of an animal closely allied to the Bos 

 Taurus (the stock from wliich our present black cattle have sprung), and not 

 of the Bison; but the remains of the European bison (B. Urus) have repeat- 

 edly been found in England, and the probabiUty certainly is, that it was also 

 an inhabitant of Scotland. It may be added, that the Beaver was formerly a 

 denizen of the wooded margins of our lochs, but has disappeared with the an- 

 cient forests — Edit. 



