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several places of the rock all the year long ; but most in summer- 
time. They gather it up with ladles, and put it into a barrel, set on 
one end, which hath a spigot just at the bottom ; when they have 
put in a good quantity they open the spigot, to let out the water ; 
and when the oil begins to come, presently stop it. They pay for 
the farm of this fountain, about fifty crowns, per annum*. 
The lake Palius, or Paliorum Lacus, in the valley of Noto, in 
Sicily, according to the account of M. Dolomieu, has sometimes 
petroleum on the surface of the water : and the mud at the bottom, 
and on the bank, which has a black colour, is tenacious, and smells 
like pitch. The whole soil of the small plain around it consists ot 
black, tough, resinous, inflammable earth. A few years ago, some 
straw huts in this neighbourhood having been set on fire, the fire was 
communicated to the ground, which burnt with a whitish dull flame, 
like that of the inflammable springs in Dauphiny, during several 
months, and was extinguished with the greatest difficulty ; as the fire, 
when extinguished in one place, broke out in another^. 
Olearius mentions its being found in Persia^. It is also found in 
Norway, in Scotland, in Aquitania, and in Alsace. 
The Mumiahi, or Mumia nativa Persiana, as described by 
Kempfer, in his Amcenitates Persi, proceeds from a rock. The 
native place of the best mummy is far from the access of men, from 
habitations, and from springs of water, in the province of Daraab. 
It is found in a narrow cave, not above two fathoms deep, cut like 
a well, out of the mass, and at the foot of the rugged mountain 
Caucasus. 
On the south side of a mountain, the northern declivity of which 
terminates in the valley of Travers, between Travers and Couvet, 
near to Neuenberg, there are two large pits, containing asphaltum ; 
* Ray’s Travels, p. 256. Magazin sur das neueste aus der Physik, vol. id. 
I Olear. Itin. Pers. lib. vi. c. 9. 
