202 SCIENCE SKETCHES. 



polishing up tin pans, and to looking into dark 

 windows or down into deep wells, in search for the 

 truth that is said to lie there. Then the law offered 

 some curious anomalies. For instance, a sheep 

 with the wool on went through the city gates for 

 fifteen francs. If the wool was taken off, it was 

 charged a franc per pound, and the sheep went in 

 as mutton, paying five francs. It was, therefore, 

 cheaper to take a sheep to pieces outside of the 

 city gate rather than within. 



Again, there was a curious complication in the 

 matter of bootjacks, a humble article of domestic 

 use, manufactured in the little village of Jonas, 

 just mentioned. If these were sent in as house- 

 hold furniture, each paid a franc, while, as wooden- 

 ware, the charge was fifty centimes. 



With the millstone-trade the results were even 

 more remarkable. One of the chief articles of 

 export from Issoire, in its early days, was the 

 stone used in flouring-mills. In the lower part of the 

 city, close to the river Couze, there is an extensive 

 quarry of a coarse, hard sandstone, most excellent 

 for milling purposes. It had long been a saying 

 with Issoire people, " We send Clermontthe wheat, 

 and the stones to grind it." The Issoire millstones 

 were not inferior to those quarried in Cantal, and, 

 the distance from Clermont being much less, the 

 Issoire millstone-cutters had almost a monopoly of 

 the Clermont trade. 



In the early days of the octroi, however, the 

 wagons which had formerly brought over manufac- 

 tured goods in exchange for millstones were 

 obliged to go to Issoire empty. Thus their owners 



