414 Description of the Petrifaction Ponds at Shirameen. 
consequence they should be brought into notice by scientific ob- 
servation. However, rather than omit all description of a spot 
which, perhaps, no Europeans but ourselves have had the oppor- 
tunity of examining, and ou which therefore we are bound (in 
justice to those opportunities) not to withhold the information 
which we obtained, | will venture to give the following notes of 
our visit, relying upon the candour and the science of my readers 
to fill up my imperfect outline :—On approaching the spot the 
ground has a hollow sound, with a particularly dreary and cal- 
cined appearance, and when upon it a strong mineral smell arises 
from the ponds. The process of petrifaction is to be traced 
from its first beginning to its termination. In one part the wa- 
ter is clear; in a second it appears thicker and stagnant; in a 
third quite black, and in its last stage is white, like a hoar frost. 
Indeed a petrified pond looks like frozen water, and before the 
operation is quite finished, a stone slightly thrown upon it breaks 
the outer coating, and causes the black water underneath to 
exude. Where the operation is complete a stone makes no im- 
pression, and a man may walk upon it without wetting his shoes. 
‘Wherever the petrifaction has been hewn into, the curious pro- 
gress of the concretion is clearly seen, and shows itself like sheets 
of rough paper placed one over the other in accumulated layers. 
Such is the constant tendency of this water to become stone, 
that where it exudes from the ground in bubbles, the petrifaction 
assumes a globular shape, as if the bubbles of a spring, bya 
stroke of magic, had been arrested in their play, and metamor- 
phosed into marble. The substance thus produced is brittle, 
transparent, and sometimes most richly streaked with green, red 
and copper-coloured veins. It admits of being cut into immense 
slabs, and takes a good polish. The present royal family of 
Persia, whose princes do not spend large sums in the construc- 
tion of public buildings, have not carried away much of the stone; 
but some immense slabs which were cut by Nadir Shah, and 
now lie neglected amongst innumerable fragments, show the ob- 
jects which he had in view. So much is this stone looked upon 
as an article of luxury, that none but the king, his sons, and 
persons privileged by special firman, are permitted to excavate ; 
and such is the ascendency of pride over avarice, that the scheme 
of farming it to the highest bidder does not seem to have ever 
come within the calculations of its present possessors. 
LXXNIII. Pro- 
