344 
Yorkshire Natural History 200 Years Ago. 
as well in employing Multitudes of Labourers, and consuming 
great Ouanities of Coal, as to the Undertakers in bringing 
them much Gain ; for tho’ Sr. Paul Pindar, who first farmed 
the Allum-Mines at Gisborough, paid Rents to the King 12500/. 
to Earl Mulgrave 1640/. and to Sir William Penniman 600 /. 
and had besides in constant pay 800 Men by Sea and Land ; 
yet he was a considerable Gainer, because there was scarce 
any other to be had ; and the Price was 26/. per Tun. Now 
there are diverse Allum-Works in this County besides these 
mentioned, viz. at Sands-end, Ashold. Slapywah and Dunsley. 
2. Jet, Geat, or Black-Amber, in Latin Gagates, which 
Name, though it is given to the Agate, is much different from 
it ; indeed some take it to be the same, but through a great 
.Mistake. It is found in this County in several Places by the 
Sea-side, growing in the Chinks and Clefts of the Rocks, which 
are filled up therewith. It is naturally of a reddish rusty 
Colour before it is polished, but after, it is really (as Solinns 
describes it) Diamond-like, black and shining. The rare 
Qualities of it Authors thus describe, which are worth our 
Notice, 
Praefulget nigro splendore Gagates 
Inter Brittannos, Levis & laevissimus idem 
Vicinas paleas trahit attritu calefactus, 
Ardet aqua lotus, restinguitur unctus Olivo. 
In English thus, 
Black shining Jet stone, like a Gem, is found 
Among the Britains in their Rocky Ground. 
’ Tis smooth and light, and being rubb’d to heat 
Will draw like Amber Straws and Chaff of Wheat, 
Sprinkled with Water, it will Fire take, 
But Oil will quench it, and the Heat quite slake. 
Solinns gives us these Qualities more fully in Prose. In 
Britain there is great store of Gagates, or Geate, a very fine 
Stone ; if you would know the Colour, it is black and shining 
like a Jewel ; if the Quality, it is exceeding light ; if the 
Nature of it, it burns in Water, and is quenched with Oil ; 
if the Virtue, it has an attractive Power, when it is heated 
with rubbing. 
3. Copperas, which is extracted out of some of the Earth, 
that is digged out of the Allum-Mines ; for in searching for 
the Allum-Earth, there arise Veins of Metals, and Soils of 
diverse Colours, especially those of Ocher and Murray, from 
which they extract Copperas, as well as Allum. 
4. Marble, and diverse sorts of Stones of strange Shapes and 
Natures. Marble is hewed out of the Rocks near Eggleston 
in Richmondshire, where that mountainous and vast Tract 
always exposed to Wind and Weather begins. It is called 
Naturalist, 
