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out an axe. At the depth of a foot it was found a little softer, 

 with an oily appearance, in small cells. A little of it held to a 

 burning candle made a hissing or crackling noise like nitre, emit- 

 ting small sparks, with a vivid flame, which extinguished the mo- 

 ment the candle was removed. A piece, put into the fire, boiled up 

 a long time, without suffering much diminution. After a considera- 

 ble exposure to severe heat, the surface burned, and formed a thin 

 scoria, under which the rest remained liquid. A gentle heat renders 

 it ductile; hence, when mixed with a little grease, or common pitch, 

 it is much used for the bottom of ships; for which use it is collected 

 by many. 



It is also found liquid, in many parts of the woods ; and at the 

 distance of about twenty miles from this, it is found about two 

 inches thick, in round holes of three or four inches diameter, and 

 often at cracks or rents. This is constantly liquid, and smells 

 stronger than when indurated ; and adheres strongly to any thing 

 it touches : grease being the only thing that will divest the hands 

 of it. The soil, in general, for some distance round La Bray, is 

 cinders and burnt earth, and where not so, is a strong argillaceous 

 soil ; the whole being exceedingly fertile. For thirty miles round, 

 there is the appearance of the convulsions of nature from subter- 

 raneous fires ; and, in several parts of the woods, hotr springs are 

 discovered. 



The Abbe Fortis, in his Travels in Dalmatia, describes what he 

 terms a mine of pissasphaltum, which he saw in the Isle of Bua. 

 By this mine he means marble strata, more than twenty -five feet per- 

 pendicular, which sustain the irregular masses that surround the 

 top of the mountain. From some of these strata tears of pissas- 

 phaltum ooze out most abundantly, when the sun falls on the mar- 

 ble rock in the heat of the day. This pissasphaltum he describes 

 as of the most perfect quality ; black and shining, like the bitumen 

 judaicum ; very pure, odorous, and cohesive. It comes out almost 



