45 
Jlrt of Making Gun-Flints. 
is in some measure confined to three communes of the 
department of Loir- et- Cher, and one department of the 
Indre, as was before mentioned, namely, the commune 
of Noyers, %&00 metres east north-east of St. Aignan; 
the commune of Couffy at 5,600 metres, and that of 
Meunes at one miriameter east south-east, and in the lat- 
ter department, the commune of Lye 9 kilometers to the 
south-west of St. Aignan. The inhabitants of these 
communes employed in this species of industry are about 
800, and they have excavated great part of the plain they 
inhabit. 
A single workman named Stephen Buffet, who emi- 
grated from the commune of Meunes to the banks of the 
Seine, where he has carried on this art for about thirty 
years by himself, was the person from whom Dolomieu 
obtained the present instructions. There are a few other 
places in France where this art is practised, but in none 
to the extent of the places before mentioned. The author 
has not met with this manufactory in any other countries, 
except in the territory of Yicenza, and one of the can- 
tons of Sicily. He remarks that it may be carried on 
elsewhere, though probably overlooked by travellers, on 
account of its apparent insignificance. I believe it is 
practised at Purfleet, in the county of Kent, and in va- 
rious other parts of England. 
