VOL. XL!.] IfHILOSOPHlCAL TRANSACTIONS. 403 



it with his fingers, Mr. B. observed that this boiled flesh was clammy and 

 glutinons; which brought to mind, that what the ancients made use of to serve 

 the purposes of glue, was made from fish. He then tried it on paper and 

 leather, and found it to answer the use of paste very well : and it was owing in 

 part to neglect, and partly to accident, that it was not also tried on wood. 



From the descriptions given of the ichthyocolla, by Dioscorides and Pliny, 

 the glue-fish seems not to be the same as this sun-fish. Whether the fish from 

 which isinglass is made, be the same as the ichthyocolla of the forementioned 

 authors, as the name usually given to it seems to import, he cannot tell : but 

 neither the ichthyocolla of Rondelitius or Bellonius, nor the huso taken in the 

 Danube, from the bladder of which fish-glue is made, can, by the descriptions 

 given of them, be the same as the sun-fish. 



Discovery of the Remains of a City under-ground, near Naples. Communicated 

 to the Royal Society by IVilliam Sloane, Esq. F. R. S. N° 455, p. 345. 



At Resina, about 4 miles from Naples, under the mountain, within half a 

 mile of the sea-side, there is a well, down which about 30 yards is a hole, which 

 some people have the curiosity to creep into, and may afterwards creep a good 

 way under-ground, and with lights find foundations of houses and streets, 

 which, by some it is said, was in the time of the Romans a city called Aretina, 

 others say Port Hercules, where the Romans usually embarked for Africa. Mr. 

 S. has seen the well, which is deep, and has a good depth of water at the bot- 

 tom, that he never cared to venture down, being heavy, and the ropes bad. 

 This city, it is thought, was overwhelmed by an eruption of the mountain 

 Vesuvius, not sunk by earthquakes, as were Cuma, Baia, Trepergola, &c. 



Of a Meteor seen in the j4ir in the Day time, Dec. 8, 1733. By Mr. Crocker. 



N° 456, p. 346. 



On Saturday, Dec. 8, 1733, between 11 and 12, the sun shining bright, the 

 weather warm, and wind at south-east, some small clouds passing, Mr. C. saw 

 something in the sky, which resembled a boy's paper kite, which appeared to- 

 wards the north, which soon vanished from sight, being intercepted by the 

 trees which were near the valley where he was standing. Its colour was a pale 

 brightness, like that of burnished or new-washed silver. It darted out of sight 

 with a seeming coruscation, like that of star-shooting in the night; but it had 

 a body much larger, and a train much longer, than any thing of that kind he 

 had ever seen before. On coming home, one Brown said, he had seen the 

 same thing, for the continuance of a minute ; and that the body and train ap- 



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