418 
THE GEOLOGIST, 
of this kind met "with in the forest of Hercynium are sometimes 
coTered 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. Xay, 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 Chatiis 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 ^leliboci mentis, 
aive, ut nunc rocant, ad Hercynmm effossus Eislebae, Mannesfeldi, Hos- 
tedae : is niger, bituminosus, aerosus, primum ex puteis extractus in aream 
effunditur, atque ita ex ista coacervatione oritur tumulus. Deinde inferior 
tumuli pars cireundatur sarmentis, in quae similiter injiciuntur id genus 
lapides ; turn sarmentis admoto igni accensis, ignem etiam concipiunt 
lapides super ea conjeeti. 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 
parvsepuri et nigri bituminis venae interdum ejusmodi lapides distingunnt: 
et, cum ardent, talem odorem emittunt qualem carbones bituminosi cum 
flagrant emittere sclent. Praeterea 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 instar liquidi bituminis licet cernere, quod vel nigrum 
est, vel fuscum, vel purpureum : quae omnia satis declarant eos lapides 
esse bituminosos. Atque id genus lapidum, ad Hercynium nemus in- 
rentum, crustse interdum scintillis pyritae aurei coloris adhaerentibus. Et 
discurrentibus exprimunt rarias animantium species, ut in genere piscium 
passeres marines, lucios, percas : in avium gallos galHnaceos, nonnunque 
salamandras. Imo pontificis Komani barbati, et triplicem coronam in 
capite habentis, effigies reperta est, quam multi viderunt. Praeterea beatae 
Virginis puerum in manibus gestautis. Eeperiuntur etiam in Chattis in- 
terdum species piscium in istius generis crustis. 2super etiam Annebergi, 
cum ageretur Thomashirni cuniculus, effbssa est cadmia bituminosa, quae 
in prunas conjecta ardet, ac olet allitmi sylvestre et tandem in cinere abit, 
parve vero argenti in se continet." 
The work which, so far^as we know, follows iu sequence, is the 
'De Thermis A^deej: Baccti, Elpidiani, Civis Komani, apud Sex- 
tum Quintum Pontificem Maximum Medici, Libri Septem, Opus 
Locupletissimum, non solum Medicis necessarium, verum etiam 
studiosis variarum rerum naturae perutile, etc., A'enetiis, 1588,' p. 
274 ; in which, discoursing " on the nature of the salt growing in 
TEAifSYLTA>'iA," he says, " Of the nature of rock-salt and bay-salt, 
* Also in edit. Patavii, 1711, lib. v. cap. iv. p. 15? (word for word). 
