136 CORRESPONDENCE OF RAY. 



an appearance of boiling in the fountain of Peroul, is not 

 in the least inflammable by the application of 'a torch, or 

 candle, which I experimented several times ; therefore it 

 is of a different kind from that of Wigan, in Lancashire. 

 This vapour rushes out of the ground so violently in some 

 places, that I had much ado to keep a candle lighted 

 near it. It is a perfect subterraneous wind, making the 

 water (which we carried along with us) much colder than 

 before it was put into the holes, which we made in the 

 adjacent earth. A learned physician of Montpellier, then 

 in company with me, opposed your opinion concerning 

 the bubbling of this fountain, ascribing it to a strange 

 fermentation between the earth and the water; but I 

 presently convinced him, by putting several parcels of 

 the earth into vessels, and pouring water upon them, for 

 then we could not perceive the least disturbance in the 

 water, which in the ditch itself was heaved up three or 

 four inches perpendicular. I could not make any 

 chemical experiments upon the water itself, because of its 

 scarcity ; but the inhabitants of Peroul told me that they 

 all commonly drink of it when the hole is full, without 

 any alteration. I am confident the vapour does not im- 

 pregnate the water with any new quality, but flies 

 through it, just as though one should blow into water 

 with a pipe. What our most ingenious and learned 

 countryman Mr. Lister, of York, hath lately writ of 

 mineral waters, may (as I fancy) give some light as to 

 the generation of this subterraneous air at Peroul. Upon 

 putting my ear close to the ground, I perceived a great 

 noise in the bowels of the earth, like unto the hissing of 

 hot iron in water. 



2. The perfumers at Montpellier do make their famous 

 cypress powder generally of the moss of the green oak, 

 for they tell me it is the most spongy, and, after washing 

 and drying, will imbibe their perfumes better than any 

 other moss whatsoever. 



3. The Chondritta carulea Cyani capiiulis \Catananclie 

 carulea, Linn.] hath only a pale, or border of leaves, 



