140 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO I667. 



fire of itself, yielding a thin blue flame, scarce discernible in the day time, and 

 leaving a blue dust behind it ; which the workmen observe and mark with 

 wooden pins. This they dig up and carry into the work-house, putting it 

 into large tubs of water to infuse about 14 hours. The water they afterwards 

 boil in kettles as we do saltpetre, and put it into cooling tubs, in which cross 

 sticks are placed, and on them the vitriol fastens like sugar-candy. 



The water that remains after the extraction of the vitriol is mixed with an 

 eighth part of urine and the lyes of wood-ashes, which is again boiled very 

 strong, and being set to cool in tubs with cross sticks, the alum fastens on 

 these. 



In the water which remains after the alum, is found a sediment, which, being 

 separated from the water, is put into an oven, and wood laid upon it, and fired 

 till it become red, which makes the minium, wherewith they paint their houses, 

 and make plaster. 



There is a kind of stone in the north of England yielding the same sub- 

 stances, except minium.* 



A Shoiver of Ashes in the Archipelago. By Capt. IVm. Badily. 



iVr« 21, p. 377- 



December 6, l631, riding at anchor in the Gulf of Volo, about ten o'clock 

 that night, it began to rain sand or ashes, and continued till two o'clock the 

 next morning. It was about two inches thick on the deck, so that we threw it 

 overboard with shovels, as we did snow the day before. The quantity of a 

 bushel we brought home, and presented to several friends, especially to the 

 masters of the Trinity House. There was no wind stirring when these ashes 

 fell ; and they not only fell in the places where we were, but likewise in other 

 parts, as ships were coming from St. John d'Acre to our port ; though at that 

 time a hundred leagues from us. We compared the ashes together, and found 

 them both alike. 



Co7icerning Salamanders living hi Fire. By M. Steno. 



N' 21, p. 377. 



M. Steno states, that a knight called Corvini had assured him, that having 

 cast a salamander, brought by him out of the Indies, into the fire, the animal 

 thereupon swelled presently, and then vomited a quantity of thick slimy matter, 



* The mineral above described is a pyritical aluminous ore, and occurs in many other countries as 

 well as in Sweden. What the author terms minium was doubtless an oxyd of iron. 



