208 TRAVELS THROUGri 



Gfanito 'di Cortona is, as it feems to me, a grey 

 lava, with white tranfparent oblong fpots, refen> 

 bling flint, and likely of the Iherl-kind, though I 

 have tried neither. They have, of late, eft- 

 blifhed at Cortona an Academy of Botany, whofc 

 fecretary is Mr. Ludovico Coltellini. Near this 

 city they have found in the earth a contexture 

 of fine coherent fibres ; which feem to have been 

 a Conferva, and referable a yellow filk-paper. 

 Mr. Strange, whom I have mentioned in former 

 Letters, has defcribed it in a Diflertation Sopra l& 

 cart a fojjile, cleft trova preffb di Cortona. 



Diafpro di Volterra is red coloured. I have 

 mentioned already the chalcedonies found near 

 that place, whofe adjacent remarkable country 

 has been defcribed at large ia the Travels of 

 Mr.Targioni Tvzzetli : Mr. Le Lorgne, Profeflbr 

 of the French language at the Academia di Nobili, 

 at Florence, has a thought of translating this 

 ufeful work into French; confining hirhfelf entirely 

 to the Natural Hiftpry of Tufcany, and leaving 

 out the diffufive hiftorical accounts, as merely 

 interefting to the inhabitants. This tranflation 

 would bear the better character, as Mr. Le Lorgne 

 is a friend of. Natural Hiftory, and has travelled 

 many times over this country. I am alike in- 

 debted to his politenefs and to his fcience. 



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