SPRINGS. 275 



a Gustavia in flower or of the Cavanillesia loaded with fruits, having membranous 

 and transparent edges." 



6. Inflammable. Springs capable of firing and supporting flame are found in several 

 parts of the globe, and, though not very numerous, they have been known from a very 

 early era. They arise from combination with combustible substances of hydrogen gas. 

 The substance usually found oozing out of the earth, in connexion with their waters, 

 passes under the various names of pitch, naphtha, petroleum or rock oil, and bitumen. 

 Naphtha is the purest state of this substance, which becomes petroleum upon a certain 

 exposure to the air, and bitumen upon a continued exposure to it. The fountain by the 

 temple of Jupiter, at Dodona, was inflammable, according to the account given of it by 

 the Roman natural philosopher and poet Lucretius : 



" A fount there is, too, which, though cold itself, 

 With instant flare the casual flax inflames 

 Thrown o'er its surface ; and the buoyant torch 

 Kindles alike immediate, o'er its pool 

 Steering the course th' etherial breeze propels." 



Pliny confirms this representation ; and if, with Colonel Leake, we suppose Dodona to 

 have been in the valley south of the lake of loannina, in Epirus, the statement may be 

 true ; for now, in Illyria and Zante, at no great distance, there are pitch springs ; and, in 

 the latter, they were certainly in existence 2300 years ago, as we learn from Herodotus. 

 " In Zacynthus," says the historian, " I saw pitch brought up out of the water of a pond. 

 Indeed there are several of these ponds ; but the largest of them is about seventy feet 

 square, and twelve feet deep. The mode of procuring the pitch is the following : They 

 take a pole, and push it into the water with a myrtle branch at the end ; and, on pulling 

 it up, they find the pitch adhering to it, which in smell is like asphaltus, but of a better 

 quality than the common pine pitch. They collect this pitch in a kind of vat or recep- 

 tacle which they have dug near the pond ; and, when the quantity is considerable, they 

 put it in large jars or barrels." The historian might be describing an operation of the 

 present day, so exactly do the proceedings of the modern Zanteotes correspond with his 

 account. The great region of naphtha springs is to the west of the Caspian, in the terri- 

 tory of Baku, where a scene presents itself alike marvellous and unique. The naphtha 

 streams spontaneously through the surface, and rises wherever a hole is bored. Speak- 

 ing of a spot where it most abounds, Colonel Rottiers states : "It appears to undergo 

 distillation as it ascends to the surface, and thence falls down the sides of the mountains 

 into reservoirs, constructed at some unknown period. It is conjectured, that entire forests 

 of resinous trees were once engulfed by some violent effort of nature, and that their 

 decomposition is the origin of this inflammable liquid. The colour of the oil is black ; 

 but it shines with a reddish tint when the sun's rays are upon it." Not far from the same 

 spot he observed a current of white oil gushing out, which readily inflames and burns 

 upon the surface of water ; and in calm weather the people of the country amuse them- 

 selves by pouring whole tons of it into a bay of the Caspian. They then set fire to it ; 

 and it is borne out of sight, giving the waves the appearance of a sea of fire ; and, in com- 

 parison with this splendid exhibition, our finest illuminations and fireworks sink into 

 insignificance. Petroleum springs occur in the territory of Modena and Parma, in Sicily, 

 and in the Birman empire, where, in one locality, there are said to be upwards of five 

 hundred wells, yielding annually 400,000 hogsheads. Around the island of Trinidad, 

 also, fluid bitumen oozes from the bottom of the sea, and rises to the surface of the 

 water ; while, in the interior of the island, there is a vast collection of bituminous matter, 

 forming a great pitch-lake, with frequent crevices and chasms filled with water. The 

 origin of the substance in this locality is referred by some writers to the immense quan- 



