284 
SECOND EXCURSION TO THE 
chap, many of them, proving porous, are rejected. 
. j Sometimes, only two or three, out of ten, are 
deemed worthy of further labour. From Pest 
they are conveyed to Vienna, and frequently 
mounted in silver. After this, they are carried 
to the fairs of Leipsic, Frcmcfort, Manheim, and 
to other towns upon the Rhine ; where the 
best sell from three to five, and even seven, 
pounds sterling each. When the oil of tobacco, 
after long smoking, has given to these pipes a 
fine porcelain yellow, or, which is more prized, 
a dark tortoiseshell hue, they have been known 
to sell for forty or fifty pounds, of our money. 
Their manner of digging keff-kil in the Crimea 
is this: they open a shaft in the ground, and 
continue to work in it until the sides begin to 
fall in ; this soon happens, from the nature of 
the soil ; when they open a new pit. A stratum 
of marl generally covers the keff-kil: through this 
they have to dig, sometimes to the depth of 
from eight to twelve fathoms. The layer of 
keff-kil seldom exceeds twenty-eight inches in 
thickness, and the marl occurs beneath it as 
before. At present, the annual exportation of 
this mineral, from the whole Peninsula , does not 
exceed two tons: the consumption of it in the 
Crimea is inconsiderable, although it be sold, in 
all the markets, at the low price ol twenty 
copeeks the poud. 
