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lluose luminous appearances were perceived, they disap-peared, and the cliffs appeared to be covered with smoke,which stunk of a bituminous and sulphureous matter.”
The same writer also states his having observed the sameappearance at the Lodes in Cornwall , especially such whichcontained a great portion of mundic and martial pyrites, hesays, “ Three times I have seen this flame arise from theearth in the night, 'and once in the middle of the day. Inthe night a person standing at a little distance, couldimagine that the place was all on fire; and even on drawingnear the flame, he perceives himself surrounded by flamebut is not hurt; and in four or five minutes time he per-ceives this flame to decrease and fall into the earth. Inthe day the flame is of a different colour, and not muchunlike the flame of a furnace. There are several minesdiscovered in this country by these mineral fires, wherethere were no symptoms of mines before.”
It is submitted - that to this cause the heat in certainwaters may be attributed ; and also, that to it may be tracedthe origin of several volcanoes.
On Petrifications. —We have yet to confess our obli-gations to Mr. Parkinson’s liberality, at the time werender a confirmation of our just sense of his superiorintelligence. He thinks bituminization i§ a vestibule tothe laboratory of petrifaction ; therefore, in following him,we are happy to observe, we have not much erred.
He also observes, that the theory he proposes to offer,differs materially from those of men who have been consideredas the first authorities. He, accordingly, lays those hypo-theses of his predecessors before the public, -which w e shallalso briefly state, being consistent with historical propriety.
“ The earliest attempt to account for petrifactions ofwood on chymical principles, proceeded in the idea thatthe fixed parts of the wood, deprived of their watery, oily,and volatile parts, on being penetrated by the lapidificfluid, would arrest the stony particles, and thereby so securetheir arrangement, that the substance thus produced shouldexactly represent the form and structure of wood ; and themore earthy particles of vegetables should thus abidetogether, and continue in their original form after beingdeprived of those particles by which they have been heldtogether; and that they should, even after the total removalof these connecting particles, instead of becoming displacedthemselves, stem the percolating particles'of earth, and beable so to retain them, that they should, thus combined,faithfully represent, as many specimens do, the original
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