920 Scientific Intelligence, 
public works, where galipoli, rapeseed or linseed oils are used 
in their manufactures, as it is an established fact, (though not 
generally known,) that these vegetable oils used on cloths, yarn, 
or wool, in the process of dying, and confined for a time from 
the open air, are very apt to occasion spontaneous fire.” 
In the Annals of Philosophy for November 1820, p. 390, an 
account is given of the spontaneous combustion of a barrel of 
oat-meal, by which the meal and barrel were totally consumed. 
The editor of that Journal presumes that the meal had been 
somewhat moist, and that it had heated precisely in the same way 
as hay does when stacked moist.” 
51. Description of the Mummy-Pits at Thebes by M. Bel- 
zoni. — The passage where the bodies, are is roughly cut in 
tile rocks, and the falling of the sand from the ceiling of the 
passage causes it to be nearly filled up. In some places there 
is not more than a foot left, which you must pass through, 
creeping like a snail on pointed stones that cut like glassi After 
getting through these passages, some of them 200 or 300 yards 
long, you generally find a more commodious place, perhaps high 
enough to sit. But what a place of rest ! surrounded by bo- 
dies, by heaps of mummies in all directions, which impressed 
me with horror. The blackness of the wall, the faint light 
given by the candles and torches for want of air, the different 
objects that surrounded me seeming to converse with each other^ 
and the Arabs with the candles or torches in their hands, naked, 
and covered with dust, themselves resembling living mummies, 
formed a scene that cannot be described. After the exertion of 
entering into such a place, through a passage of 80, 1 00, 300, or 
perhaps 600 yards, nearly overcome, I sought a resting-place, I 
found one, and contrived to sit ; but when my weight bore on 
the body of an Egyptian, it crushed it like a bandbox. I in- 
stantly had recourse to my hands to sustain my weight, but 
they found no better support, so that I sunk altogether among 
the broken mummies with a crash of bones, rags, and wooden 
eases, which raised such a dust as kept me motionless for a 
quarter of an hour waiting till it subsided again. I could not 
remove from the place, however, without increasing it, and 
every step I took I crushed a mummy in some part or other. 
