FUMAVOLS. 



.547 



J- HESE trifling ignitions of coal-pits are treat- 

 ed by the Wernerians with an importance truly 

 ludicrous. Their chief products seem to be in- 

 durated clay, and, according to some, tripoli. 

 Slates may also be turned to slags ; and what is 

 called porcelain jasper, probably an iron stone 

 affected by the heat, also appears in the vicinity 

 of those ignited spots, particularly near Dysert Dysert. 

 in Fifeshire, where a coal-mine has continued in 

 a state of deflagration, at least since the time of 

 Buchanan, 1560; for he minutely describes the 

 spot in one of his poems. Nay, according to 

 Mr. Kirwan, who quotes the Memoirs of the 

 Academy of Sciences for 1781, the mountain of 

 Cransac has continued burning since the year Cransac. 

 1400. 



It is observable, that Mr. Kirwan, and the 

 other Neptunians, regard columnar argillaceous 

 iron ore, which has a singular affinity with pris- 

 matic basaltin, as a product of these pseudo-vol- 

 I canoes, a name which would more properly be- 

 2 N 2 



