96 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 



fine marine sand. They are not only indented with the figures of shells, but contain the 

 shells themselves in a petrified form. 



These petrifactions are certainly worthy of a more minute examination. Dr. Smith 

 considered a very extensive collection of fish in sandstone, in the possession of an 

 apothecary of Verona, a very great curiosity. I have no doubt but that a very inte- 

 resting one of shells might be made from these immense strata of sandstone. Vide J. E. 

 Small's Sketch of a Tour on the Continent, vol. 3. 



NOTE I. 



In the country about Salina, the place where the principal manufactory of salt is, there 

 are immense quantities of gypsum. It appears that there is some natural affinity between 

 gypsum and salt. Mr. Pennant thus speaks of Northwich, a small town long famous 

 for its rock salt and brine pits : " The stratum of salt lies about forty yards deep. 

 Above the salt is a bed of whitish clay (argilla ccerula-cinerea) used in making the Liver- 

 pool earthen ware, and in the same place is also dug a good deal of the gypsum, or plaster 

 stone. The fossil salt is generally yellow and semi-pellucid, sometimes debased with a 

 dull, greenish earth, and is often found, but in small quantities, quite clear and colour- 

 less." Tour in Scotland, 1769. 



NOTE K. 



It is highly probable that there are other springs of petroleum in other parts of the 

 country. Large oil stones are found at the Indian Saw Mill, twelve miles up the Buffalo 

 creek, strongly impregnated with Seneka oil. These stones are produced from bitu- 

 minous springs flowing over beds of madrepores under ground. Pennant says, that petro- 

 leum, or rock oil, is found sometimes in the mines in Wales, has an agreeable smell, and 

 is esteemed serviceable in rheumatic cases, if rubbed on the parts affected. The miners 

 call it the Fairies' Butter. Tour in Wales, vol. 1. 



But the most extraordinary bituminous springs of which we have any account, are in 

 the Bernian Empire. In the Province of Arracan, Major Symes met with a considerable 

 cluster of them, the depth of whose wells was about thirty-seven fathoms, and the column 

 of oil contained in them generally as high as the waist of those who descended for the 

 purpose of collecting it. Symes's Embassy to Ava. 



