256 DOMAIN XI. DECOMPOSED. 



nature of a slate : there are but three mines of it 

 known in these parts, one near Chavennes*, 

 another in the Valteline, and the third in the 

 Grisons ; but the first is much the best. They 

 generally cut it in the mine round, of about a 

 foot and a half diameter, and about a foot and a 

 quarter thick ; and they work it in a mill, where 

 the chisels that cut the stone are driven about by 

 a wheel that is set a going by water, and which 

 is so ordered, that he who manages the chisel, 

 very easily draws forward the wheel out of the 

 course of the water. They turn off first the 

 outward coat of this stone, till it is exactly 

 smooth, and then they separate one pot after 

 another by those small and hooked chisels ; by 

 which they make a nest of pots, all one within 

 another ; the outward and biggest being as big 

 as an ordinary beef-pot, and the inward pot 

 being no bigger than a small pipkin : these they 

 arm with hooks and circles of brass, and so they 

 are served by them in their kitchens. One of 

 these stone-pots takes heat, and boils, sooner 

 than any pot of metal ; and whereas the bottoms 

 of metal-pots transmit the heat so entirely to the 

 liquor within, that they are not insufferably hot, 

 the bottom of this stone-pot, which is about 



* Chiavenna. 



