C A^6B ) 
their walesjto render them whiter then ordinary ; which it doth 
even whiter than lirae» Such wales conlerve their faltnefsfomc 
few daiesonly^and then become infipid, even though they fwet 
forth a white excrefcence in thin and light flakes like niter^mas 
iiy years after. But that Salt^ which is collefted from the ftones 
gravel and earth , by which the rivolets, defcendiog from thofc 
Baths , do run^ is without any taft of Salt 5 though there be no 
difference in the form or colour from that which is gathered 
with the wooden inftruments^by me mentioned* This is the Sum 
of what I havetofayat prefent of this particular. If you think 
the matter tantijl will fend you a more ample defcription there- 
of^ withmy thoughts upon it* 
'RefleBhns mad^ by P. Francllco 'Lznz upon an Obfervation of 
Signor M. Antonio Caftagnaj^'a^^^r intendent oj [ome mines in /- 
tal'^^ comerning the formation oj Cryfials ; Engltjhdout oftheXh 
Venetian Giornale de Letterati* 
IN the laft month September^ being arrived in the Val Sabbia 
into a place call'd le Afe^ane, where I knew that thofe Cry- 
ftals are generated,! obferv'd in a fpacious round of a Meddow^ 
featedon a hillock j foine narrow places bare of all herbs, in 
which alone, and no where elfe thereabout, thofe Cryftals are 
produced^ being all fex-angular , both points of them termina* 
ting in a pyramidal figure , fex-angular likewifc* 
I was told, that they were produced from the dews, becaufe 
fforfooth ! ) being gathered over night^the next morning there 
would be found others at fuch a time only , when it was a fe- 
rene and dewy sky^and that upon the herbs of the meddow,and . 
without the bounds of thofe bare and flerile places never any 
Cryftals were to be found,- befides, that the ground having 
beeninforae places bared of all greens , and reduced to the 
condition of thofe other naked places^ yet tio cryftals were ever 
feen to have been formed there. But I, when I had examined 3 
that in the neighbour-hood of that hill there was no mark at all 
ofanyMines, didconclude^thatit mightbe aplenty of nitrous 
iteames, which might withal hinder vegetation in thofe places, 
and coagulate the Dew falling thereon* And that thofe exhala- 
tions were rather Nitrous 5 than of an other kind, I was induced 
: Q believe, becaufe Niter is not only the natural coagnlum of wa- 
ter 
