PETRIFACTIONS. 
285 
rather than omit all description of a spot, which perhaps no Europeans 
but ourselves have had the opportunity of examining, and on which, 
therefore, we are bound (in justice to those opportunities) not to with¬ 
hold the information which we obtained ; I will venture to give the fol¬ 
lowing notes of our visit, relying upon the candour and the science of 
my reader to fill up my imperfect outline. 
On approaching the spot, the ground has a hollow sound, with a 
particularly dreary and calcined appearance, and when upon it, a strong 
mineral smell arises from the ponds. The process of petrifaction is 
to be traced from its first beginning to its termination. In one part, 
the water is clear, in a second, it appears thicker and stagnant, in 
a third, quite black, and in its last stage, is white like a hoar frost. 
Indeed, a petrified pond looks like frozen water, and before the oper¬ 
ation is quite finished, a stone slightly thrown upon it breaks the outer 
coating, and causes the black water underneath to exude. Where the 
operation is complete, a stone makes no impression, and a man may 
walk upon it without wetting his shoes. Whenever the petrifaction has 
been hewn into, the curious progress of the concretion is clearly seen, 
and shews itself like sheets of rough paper placed one over the other 
in accumulated layers. Such is the constant tendency of this water 
to become stone, that where it exudes from the ground in bubbles, the 
petrifaction assumes a globular shape, as if the bubbles of a spring, by 
a stroke of magic, had been arrested in their play, and metamorphosed 
into marble. These stony bubbles which form the most curious speci¬ 
mens of this extraordinary quarry, frequently contain with them portions 
of the earth through which the water has oozed. 
The substance thus produced is brittle, transparent, and sometimes 
most richly streaked with green, red, and copper-coloured veins. It 
admits of being cut into immense slabs, and takes a good polish. We 
did not remark that any plant except rushes grew in the water. The 
shortest and best definition that can be given of the ponds, is that 
which Quintus Curtins gives of the Lake Ascanius —Aqua sponte con- 
erescens. * 
* Lib. xi. c. 12. 
