CATARACTS, AND INUNDATIONS. 145 



Frigidus est etiam funs, supra quern sita srepe 

 Sluppa jacit flammam, coucepto profinus igni; 

 Tedaque consimili ratione, adcensa per undas, 

 Conlucet, quoquoinque natans inpeliitur auris : 



A fount there is, too, which though cold itself, 

 With instant ilare the casual flax inflames 

 Thrown o'er its surface ; and the buoyant torch 

 Kindles alike immediate, o'er its pool 

 Steering the course th' etherial breeze propels. 



GOOD. 



Upon this subject we must again have recourse to the learned 

 translator's explanation and exemplification of this curious pheno- 

 menon, which he gives us in the following note subjoined to the 

 translation we have now copied. 



" This is perhaps a more extraordinary phenomenon than that 

 of hot springs. The account, however, is confirmed by Pliny, who 

 adds, that it was situated near the temple erected to Jupiter at 

 Dodona, ii. 103. * In Dodone Jovis autem fons, cum sit gelidus, 

 et immersas faces extinguat; si extincte admoveantur, accendit.' 

 But this is not the only fountain of this nature of which Pliny makes 

 mention: for in lib. xxxi, 2, he enumerates two more, the one in 

 India, denominated Lycos ; and the other at Ecbatana, which is in 

 like manner described by Solinus. Such may have existed for any 

 thing we can affirm to the contrary, and our author's reasoning upon 

 the nature of their operations is at least consistent and ingenious. 

 Even in modern chemistry the approximation of different substances 

 that are highly charged with latent or elementary fire, the fire-seeds 

 of Lucretius, although sensibly cold to the touch prior to their 

 contact, will occasionally produce the effect here delineated, and 

 burst forth into the most surprising and instantaneous blaze. But 

 this phenomenon is more frequently produced by an admixture of 

 vegetable essential oils with highly concentrated mineral acids, and 

 especially those of nitre and sulphur, than by the union of any other 

 substances. 



" The springs here spoken of consisted, in all probability, of 

 pure liquid bitumen 5 or if not, of springs on the surface of which 

 bitumen floated in great quantities. Such are by no meaus unfre. 



VOL, in. L 



