112 Salt Wells and Springs of Inflammable Gas in China. 



excess is conducted beyond the limits of the salt-work, and there 

 forms three chimneys or columns of flame. The surface of the 

 court is exceedingly hot, and burns beneath the feet. Even in 

 January the woi-kmen are half naked, having only a small pair 

 of drawers to cover them. In winter, the poor people, in order 

 to warm themselves, dig the sand to the depth of a foot. With 

 a little straw, they set fire to the hollow thus formed, and sitting 

 round it, warm themselves as long as they are so inclined. They 

 then fill up the hollow with sand, and the fire goes out. 



The singular circumstance of saline water and inflammable 

 gas occurring together in the districts of Young Hian and Wei- 

 Yuan-Hian can only be accounted for by the alternation of salt 

 beds and beds of coal. In fact, the latter are often met with 

 in boring the salt wells. Some coal mines are worked in this 

 country. They contain much gas, and lamps cannot be burnt 

 in them. The miners obtain an imperfect light from saw-dust 

 and resin, which burn without flame, and are not easily extin- 

 guished. In boring the salt wells, a bituminous oil (naphtha, 

 no doubt) is met with, which burns in water. Four or five 

 hundred pounds of it are collected daily. It is used for light- 

 ing the hall in which the wells and salt-pans are. 



The salt-wells and coal-mines employ an immense number of 

 the inhabitants ; and some rich individuals have so many as a 

 hundred wells in their possession. 



Bibl. Universelle. 



Remarks on the Ancient Flora of the Earth. 

 Orongni art's description of the plants of a former world, and 

 account of the distribution of their principal forms in the dif- 

 ferent strata of the earth, is undoubtedly one of the most im- 

 portant contributions which geology has lately received. By 

 means of it, we are, for the first time, able distinctly to view all 

 the information connected with this important object. We are 

 thereby made acquainted with the simplest elements of the dif- 

 ferent floras, from the earliest to the present time. Indeed, the 

 law of the progressive development of the classes of plants, 

 and of a gradual perfection of their organization from the re- 

 motest periods till the latest geological epoch, is proved by 

 this investigation in as striking and evident a manner as has 



