CHAP, in S Y L V A 249 



that which is made of tar only, without other com- 

 position. There is a way which some ship-carpenters 

 in those countries have us'd, to bring their tar into 

 pitch for any sudden use ; by making the tar so very 

 hot in an iron-kettle, that it will easily take fire, 

 which when blazing, and set in an airy place, they 

 let burn so long, till, by taking out some small quantity 

 for trial, being cold, it appears of a sufficient con- 

 sistence : Then, by covering the kettle close, the fire 

 is extinguished, and the pitch is made without more 

 ceremony. There is a process of making rosin also, 

 out of the same knots, by splitting them out into 

 thin pieces, and then boiling them in water, which 

 will educe all the resinous matter, and gather it into 

 a body, which (when cold) will harden into pure 

 rosin. It is moreover to be understood, that the fir, 

 and most coniferous trees, yield the same concretes, 

 lachrymce, turpentines, and there is a fir which exstills 

 a gum not unlike the balm of Gilead, and a sort of 

 tus ; rosins, hard, naval stone, liquid pitch, and tar 

 for remedies against the cough, arthritic and pulmonic 

 affections ; are well known, and the chyrurgion uses 

 them in plaisters also ; and in a word, for mechanic 

 and other innumerable uses ; and from the burning 

 fuliginous vapour of these, especially the rosin, we 

 have our lamp, and printers black, ?c. I am per- 

 swaded the pine, pitch and fir trees in Scotland, might 

 yield His Majesty plenty of excellent tar, were some 

 industrious person employ'd about the work ; so as I 

 wonder it has been so long neglected. But there is 

 another process not much unlike the former, which 

 is given us by the present archbishop of Samos, 

 Joseph Georgirenes, in his description of that, and 

 other islands of the ^Egaean. 



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