118 DOMAIN I. SIDEEOU6. 



phenomena as that of Angers. It is a substance 

 as rare in other countries as in France, there 

 being only one or two quarries in England, in 

 the county of Caernarvon. Switzerland presents 

 no slate, except in the valley of Sernst, in the 

 canton of Claris. 



" Italy has only one slate-quarry, that of La- 

 vagna, in the state of Genoa, which furnishes a 

 slate of an excellent quality, and so impene- 

 trable to fluids, that it serves to line the cisterns 

 in which olive-oil is preserved. 



" Germany presents many kinds of secondary 

 slate (clay-slate), containing impressions of rep- 

 tiles, fish, and other animals ; but these impres- 

 sions have a considerable relievo, aiid it is evi- 

 dent that the animal has existed. The most 

 remarkable of these slate-quarries are those of 

 Eisleben, in Saxony; of Ilmenau; of Mansfeld, 

 in Thurirjgia; and of Pappenheim, in Franconia, 

 I have often seen, in the mountains of Siberia, 

 beds of primitive slate, more or less considerable; 

 but they are mostly aluminous, and furnish the 

 kamennoie maslo, or rock butter, a fat yellowish 

 substance of a penetrating smell, being a mix- 

 ture of alum and fluid bitumen. But I have no 

 knowledge rhat in all this immense country there 

 ip one bed of secondary slate. Nor does Bowles, 



