180 October 1748. 



wife get a confiderable profit from the travellers 

 who every hour pafs through on the high road. 



THE fteep banks confift of the red limeftone, 

 which I have before defcribed. It is here plainly 

 vifible that the ftrata are not horizontal, but con- 

 fiderably dipping, efpecially towards the fouth. 

 The weather and the air has in a great meafure 

 diflblved the ftone here : I enquired, whether it 

 could not be made .ufe of, but w r as allured, that 

 in building houfes it was entirely ufelefs ; for, 

 though it is hard and permanent under ground, 

 yet, on being dug out, and expofed for fome 

 time to the air, it firft crumbles into greater, 

 then into lefler pieces, and at laft is converted 

 into duft. An inhabitant of this town, how- 

 ever, tried to build a houfe with this fort of ftone, 

 but its outfides being expofed to the air, foon 

 began to change fo much, that the owner wa$ 

 obliged to put boards all over the wall, to pre- 

 ferye it from falling to pieces. The people how- 

 ever pretend that this ftone is a very good ma-> 

 nure, if it is fcattered upon the corn-fields in its 

 rubbiili ftate, for it is faid to ftifle the weeds: it is 

 therefore made ufe of both on the fields and in 

 gardens.* 



TOWARDS the evening we continued our jour- 

 ney, and were ferried over the river Rareton* toge- 

 ther with our horfes. In a very dry fummer, and 

 when the tide has ebbed, it is by no means dan- 

 gerous to ride through this river. On the oppofite 

 ihore the red juniper tree was pretty abundant. 

 The country through which we now paffed was 



* PROBABLY it is a ftone marie; a blue and reddifh fpecies of 

 kind is ufed with good fuccefs, in the county ofBarnf 



pretty 



