418 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



of this kind met with in the forest of Hercynium are sometimes 

 covered with a crust of sparkling gold-coloured pyrites. They repre- 

 sent also now and then figures of animals, as for instance, of kinds 

 of fishes : Flat-fish, Pikes, Perches ; of the bird-kind : cocks, hens ; 

 sometimes also salamanders. Nay, even an image of a bearded Eoman 

 pontiff, wearing on his head the three-storied crown (tiara), has been 

 discovered, and which has been seen by many. Besides this, the image 

 of the Holy Virgin also, holding the baby in her arms. There ap- 

 pear also sometimes in Chattis species of fish of this sort of incrusta- 

 tions. 



" Lastly, at Anneberg, on digging the Thomashirn pit, a bitumi- 

 nous ore has been discovered, which, thrown on to live coals, burned 

 and yielded a smell like wild garlic, and finally was reduced to ashes, 

 containing but very little silver." 



The following is a transcript of the original text : — 



" Spino similis, si non idem, est lapis fissilis ad radices Meliboci montis, 

 sive, ut nunc vocant, ad Hercynmm effossus Eislebse, Mannesfeldi, Hos- 

 terise : is niger, bituminosus, eerosus, primum ex puteis extractus in aream 

 effunditur, atque ita ex ista coacervatione oritur tumulus. Deinde inferior 

 tumuli pars circundatur sarmentis, in quse similiter injiciuntur id genus 

 lapides ; turn sarmentis admoto igni accensis, ignem etiam concipiunt 

 lapides super ea conjecti. Hi proximis quibusque impertiunt ignem : 

 atque omnino omnes qui jam ardent, eis proxime adjunctis, ut autem 

 facile ignem concipere signum sit bitumini commune cum sulfure : tamen 

 parvse puri et nigri bituminis vense interdum ejusmodi lapides distinguunt: 

 et, cum ardent, talem odorem emittunt qualem carbones bituminosi cum 

 flagrant emittere solent. Prseterea si quando in ardentes mediocris 

 pluvia decidit, magis ardent, et citius mollescunt : quinetiam ubi ventus 

 fumum qui sursum fertur, in proximam aquam stantem dejecerit, mox in 

 ea innatare aliquid in star liquidi bituminis licet cernere, quod vel nigrum 

 est, vel fuscum, vel purpureum : quse omnia satis declarant eos lapides 

 esse bituminosos. Atque id genus lapidum, ad Hercynium nemus in- 

 ventum, crustae interdum scintillis pyritse aurei coioris adhserentibus. Et 

 discurrentibus exprimunt varias animantium species, ut in genere piscium 

 passeres marinos, lucios, percas: in avium gallos gallinaceos, nonnunque 

 salamandras. Imo pontificis Pornani barbati, et triplicem coronam in 

 capite kabentis, effigies reperta est, quam miilfci viderunt. Prapterea beatse 

 Virginis puerum in manibus gestantis. Keperiuntur etiam in Chattis in- 

 terdum species piscium in istius generis crustis. Isuper etiam Annebergi, 

 cum ageretur Thomashirni cuniculus, efibssa est cadmia bituminosa, qua3 

 in prunas conjecta ardet, ac olet allium sylvestre et tandem in cinere abit, 

 parve vero argenti in se continet." 



The work which, so far as we know, follows in sequence, is the 

 { De Thermis Andeeje Baccti, Elpidiani, Civis Roman!, apud Sex- 

 tum Quintuin Pontificem Maximum Medici, Libri Septem, Opus 

 Locupletissimum, non solum Medicis necessarium, verum etiam 

 studiosis variarum rerum naturae perutile, etc., Venetiis, 1588,' p. 

 271 ; in which, discoursing " on the nature of the salt growing in 

 Teansylyania," he says, " Of the nature of rock-salt and bay-salt, 



* Also in edit. Patavii, 1711, lib. v. rap. iv. p. 157 (word for word). 



