494 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [anNO 1754. 



politan palms,* one of which is more than the mercantile canna of Rome. All 

 the buildings discovered in this site are noble : many of the pavements are of 

 mosaic, variously and finely made ; others are of different-coloured marbles, dis- 

 posed vi^ith a beautiful symmetry ; and most of them are already taken up. In 

 one of these buildings there has been found an entire library, composed of 

 volumes of the Egyptian Papyrus, of which 250 have been taken out ; and the 

 place is not yet cleared or emptied, it having been deemed necessary to erect 

 props first, to keep the earth, which lies above it, from falling in upon it. 

 These volumes of Papyrus consist of Latin and Greek manuscripts ; but from their 

 brittleness, occasioned by the fire and time, it is not possible to unroll them, being 

 now decayed and rotten. There have been found some of those small tables, 

 which they covered with wax and the palimpseston, and then wrote on them with 

 the stylus : but all these are become a kind of cinder ; and have also suffered by 

 the damps ; from both which circumstances they are now so tender, that they 

 break with the touch. 



In the same place there have been found 3 small busts ; one of Epicurus, an- 

 other of Zeno, and the third of Humachus ; with the names of each inscribed 

 on the basis, in Greek letters. A little distant from the preceding site has been 

 discovered another noble building, with a square court belonging to it ; the inside 

 of which alone has been hitherto examined. This square is formed with fluted 

 columns made of brick stuccoed. In the angles were 4 terms of marble, with 

 busts on them, in bronze, of the finest manner, having the name of the Greek 

 workman on one of them. In the centre, between the terms, was a small foun- 

 tain, formed by a vase shaped like a cockle-shel), and supported by a small fluted 

 column. There have been also found 3 other busts, large, and in bronze, likewise 

 of the most excellent workmanship. Within these few days the following things 

 have been taken out of the same site ; viz. a female statue, 6 palms high, per- 

 haps a goddess, though without any attribute, and but of middling workmanship; 

 2 most beautiful candlesticks, S-J- palms high, exquisitely wrought in chased 

 work ; other candlesticks, much damaged by the fire and time ; many fragments 

 in bronze, which, not having any particular merit, it is needless to describe, 

 except two small figures of fawns, that are finely executed. In the same place 

 was discovered a large fountain, lined throughout with lead : round it were 1 1 

 heads of lionesses, out of which the water flowed. Pipes of lead are very often 

 met with ; and scarcely a day passes but something is brought. 



LXXXVl. Experimental Examination of a White Metallic Substance said to be 

 found in the Gold Mines of the Spanish West-Indies, and there known by the 



* A Neapolitan palm is said to be 11-| inches English. — Orig. 



