CORRESPONDENCE OF RAY, 



Mr. Pr. Willughby to Mr. Weay. 



SiR^ — The first thing I saw considerable after I left 

 Montpellier, was a spring of Oleum petroleum at Gabian; 

 at the same place there is a kind of a black pumice stone 

 and a medicinal well. From thence we went to Nar- 

 bonne, where there is some antiquities ; there having a 

 very sore leg, and not being able to endure riding, I re- 

 solved to go forward by sea, and went in a little vessel 

 down the river to the sea shore, where we expected good 

 weather almost a week, in which time the plaister of 

 diapalma cured my leg ; and, the mariners being out of 

 hopes of a good wind, we bought a pair of mules for 

 about five pistoles apiece, and set forwards to Perpintan, 

 Colliver, and Capo de Creux. Between Colliver and Capo 

 de Creux, we passed the frontiers without any danger, 

 searching, or trouble at all, only at the expense of an 

 escus for a guide. At Capo de Creux is the principal 

 place for the coral fishing, and though the wind hindered 

 us from seeing the fishing, I saw the instruments and 

 understood as much about it as if I had seen it taken out 

 of the sea. Thence to Vict, where there is a mine of 

 amethysts, which they call ' violet stones ;' by what I saw 

 there, and learned afterwards, I make no question but 

 diamonds, rubies, iacinths, and almost all precious stones, 

 grow just in the same manner as the Bristol diamonds, 

 hexangidar and pointed, except agate and corneole, which 

 may be reckoned among pebbles. Thence to Cardona, 

 where there is a mountain of Sal Fossilis, which serves 

 all the country thereabouts ; the best is hard and trans- 

 parent like crystal, so as they make beads of it and sell 

 them very cheap at the town. About the mountain some 

 sea-plants. And now I would advise you by all means 

 to make a little tour in Spain, and see the Oleum petrol., 

 the coral, the amethysts, and the salt mountain ; but to 

 go no farther than Cardona, unless you resolve upon the 

 Canary voyage, or have a mind to an Andalusian whore. 

 But from Cardona to Xvesca, a great town between 



."Tl'^I^Civ 



