CG IIISTOIIV OF 



is permitted to nin home, seemingly without the smallest 

 iiijuiy. 



This vapour, which thus for a time suffocates, is of the hu- 

 mid kind, as it extinguishes a torch, and sullies a looking-glass : 

 but th<?re arc other vapours perfectly inflammable, and that only 

 require the approach of a candle to set them blazing. Oi 

 this kind was the burning well at Brosely, which is now 

 stopped up ; the vapour of which, when a candle was brought 

 within about a foot of the surface of the water, caught 

 flame like spirits of wine, and continued blazing several houis 

 after. Of this kind, also, are the per])etual fires in the 

 kingdom of Persia. In that province, where the worship- 

 pers of fire hold their chief mysteries, the whole surface 

 of the earth, for some extent, seems impregnated with in- 

 flammable vapours. A reed stuck into the ground continues to 

 burn like a flambeau ; a hole made beneath the surface of the 

 earth, instantly becomes a furnace, answering all the purposes of 

 a culinary fire. There they make lime by merely burjnng the 

 stones in the earth ; and watch with veneration the appearances 

 of a flame that has not been extinguished for times immemorial. 

 How different are men in various climates ! This deluded 

 people worship these vapours as a deity, wliich in other parts of 

 the world are considered as one of the greatest evils. 



CHAP. IX. 



or VOLCANOES AND EARTHQUAKES. 



Mines and caverns, as we have said, reach but a very little 

 way under the surface of the earth, and we have hitherto 

 had no opportunities of exploring further. Without all doubt 

 the wonders that are still unknown surpass those that have 

 been represented, as there are depths of thousands of mili;s 

 which are hidden from om* inquiry. The only tidings we have 

 from those unfathomable regions are by means of volcanoes, 

 those burning mountains that seem to discharge their materials 



