OLEAGINOUS PRODUCTS OF THAMES MUD. 267 



was the only difficulty, he concluded, after the manner of 

 Mahomet, that if the mountain would not come to him, he 

 might go to the mountain; and then made an offer of 

 partnership on the basis that the Frenchman should do the 

 chemistry of the work, and that he (the Yorkshireman) 

 should do the rest. 



Accordingly, he went to the works around, and offered 

 to contract for the purchase of all their soapsuds, if they 

 would allow him to put up a tank or two on their premises. 

 This he did; the acid was added, the fat rose to the sur- 

 face, was skimmed off, and carried, without the water, to 

 the central works, where it was melted down, and, with 

 very little preparation, was converted into " cold-neck 

 grease," and "hot-neck grease," and used, besides, for 

 other lubricating purposes. The. Frenchman's science and 

 skill, united with the Yorkshireman's practical sagacity, 

 built up a flourishing business, and the grease thus made is 

 still in great demand and high repute for lubricating the 

 rolling-mills of iron works, and for many other kinds of 

 machinery. 



My readers need not be told that there are soapsuds in 

 London as well as in Yorkshire, and they also know that 

 the London soapsuds pass down the drains into the sewers. 

 I may tell them that betides this there are many kinds of 

 acids also passed into London sewers, and that others are 

 generated by the decompositions there abounding. These 

 acids do the Frenchman's work upon the London soapsuds, 

 but the separated fat, instead of rising slowly and undis- 

 turbed to form a film upon the surface of the water, is 

 rolled and tumbled amongst its multifarious companion 

 filth, and it sticks to whatever it may find congenial to it- 

 self. Hairs, rags, wool, ravellings of cotton, and fibres of 

 all kinds are especially fraternal to such films of fat: they 

 lick it up and stick it about and amid themselves; and as 

 they and the fat roll and tumble along the sewers together, 

 they become compounded and shaped into unsavory balls 

 that are finally deposited on the banks of the Thames, and 

 quietly repose in its hospitable mud. 



But there is no peace even there, and the gentle rest of 

 the fat nodules is of short duration. The mud-larks are 



