TO THE CAPITAL OF THE BANNAT. 307 
in which it lies. The history of the discovery 
of this 7nine deserves particular attention; as 
it contains a remarkable testimony to the 
universality of an opinion among miners, that 
lambent Jiames, which are sometimes observed 
playing upon the surface of the earth, denote 
the presence of metallic veins in the fissures 
below. It comes to us upon the respectable 
authority oi' Bom himself; some of whose obser- 
vations upon the Nagyag mine will be found 
incorporated with our own: therefore it ought 
to be related as nearly as possible according to 
his own words. Th.e.Jla'me here alluded to may 
be considered similar to that of the Pietra Mala, 
near Feligara, in Italy : and as it is a gaseous 
emanation of hydrogen, of which no metallic 
substance, however pure, is destitute, the fact is 
more worthy the consideration of chemists than 
the attention they have hitherto shewn to it 
seems to imply. The circumstance is thus re- 
lated by Born, in one of his Letters to Professor 
Ferher\ 
" A JValachian, whose name was Armenian 
John, came to my father, then possessed of a 
(I) " Travels through the Bann<.t" &c. p. 97. Land. 1777. 
X 2 
