324 Report on the Discovery of 



olive oil, and at a fourth of the expense, as the petroleum 

 costs only two Genoese sous per pound, (which is less than 

 a penny English.) 



LXI. Report oil the Discovery nf a Drpoait nf lit?imii.'-n?i$ 

 Wood. Read in the Ligi/rian Inst'itvte July 1802 ly 

 C. JNIoJOX, public Professor of Chemistry*. 



At the period when nature opened in the state of Parmd, 

 on the north side of the Appenincs, an extraordinary spring 

 of petroleum f, it presented on the opposite side, in Ligu- 

 ria, at the distance of about fifteen leagues, a considerable 

 depot of bituminous wood. The discover)' of this fossil 

 is even a little more recent, and is equally interesting to the 

 naturalist and to the state. For a knowledge of it we are 

 ifidebtL'd to the ufclid labours of professor Mojon, as will 

 be seen by the following extract from the report which he 

 made to the National Instilute of Liguria ; 



" Castel Nuovo is a country of Lunigiana on the confines 

 of the Italian republic. It is in the plain of that country, 

 ha!f a league from the mouth of the Magra, that the mine 

 of the substance in question has been discovered. It is si- 

 tuated in a soil formed of argillaceous and calcareous strata, 

 more or less thick, and inclined in different directiona 

 throughout their whole extent. The nature of the fossil, 

 as well as the constitution of the Soil, evidently shows that 

 these strata were formed only by great floods, which carried 

 with them and buried whole forests |. The extent of this 

 deposit, however, cannot be determined, because the pits 

 proposed to be svmk at different distances for that purpose 

 have not yet been constructed. Hitherto one only has been 

 made, about 40 feet in depth, the bottom of which is inun- 

 dated by a spring that issues from an excavation attempted 

 in a lateral direction; and it is to be ol)scrved, that in thi-s 

 pit no disengagement has been remarked of carbonic acid 

 gas, nor of tliose gases generally developed from such ex- 

 cavations. 



* From tlie Anvnks de Coimir, No. 135. 



+ See the preccdinj;; article. 



:j: Is there not reason to btlit-ve that the laais ^n^n of the aiitient Ljnin 

 must form part of this deposit ? The ruins of the town, in digging 

 among which monuments woithy the atiention of the antiquary !iave 

 lately Been discovered, are found vcrv near, and at the distance of the 

 third of a leas'ue from the mouth of the Majrra. 



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