pregnated to a very uncommon dègree with fait, and
confiderable falt-petre works are carried on in rhany
parts, particularly at Murcia and Lorca, collected from
the earth in the fields, the very duff oh the roads and
in the ftreets ; from which, after extracting thè Quantity
of falt-petre, the fame dirt, thrown up in Urge
heaps, ferves again in four or five years, for thè like
purpofe, and furniihes a frefh fupply. This circura-
ftance renders the foil fo peculiarly favourable for the
culture of barriRa, There are eight or ten different
forts o f plants in the plains of Alicant, whofe aihes fervè
for making glafs and foap; but the barrilla'p) is the principal
and bèll fort r the method o f making it is wéll dè-
fcribed in Miller’s gardeners diétionafy, and is much thè
'farne as is ufed in the North o f England in burning kelp.
An atre may "give abòut a tun.,
I elafe this letter with the further obfervations made
here by Don Guillermo Bowles, relating to a cinnabar
mine, which I fhall give in his own words, às they relate
to particular refearches of his own.:, t* About two
leagues from Alicant there is a mountain called Aieorai,
coinpofed of lime-ilonc. On digging in that part next
(«) The four principal plànls for the purpofes. àboveinentioìied are aiffingmffied by thè
names of barfilla, gaiid, fq[ar and Jalkor, and are difficult to be diflinguiffied except by good,
judges. They haye been fully deieribed. by Mr.. Swinburne..
the
the valley, I difcovered a bed o f mineralized mercury
with fulphur and calcareous earthy o f the ihape and colour
of cinnabar; however as this bed. difappeared
at a hundred feet depth, I fufpended my purfuits. I
found thirteen ounces of heavy fand, o f a beautiful red
colour, in a crevice ofrock 4 1 elfaycd one ounce, and
found it to contain, more than eleven ounces o f quick-
filver par pound ; it pcrf'eCtiy refembles the fea fand in
its hardnefs and angular form;.. The colour becomes
livelier, when pounded, which,fhews that every, grain was
poffeffed of fulphur and mercurial vapour, in the fame
manner as, the fand is witffiron at. Cape de Gat..
On the top of this mountain, and not* far from a bed
of red gypfum, I found different marine bodies petrified,
fuch as tehnites and pieces o f madrepores mineralized with
iron as well as- other petrifaftions : and' about fifteen
feet under ground: I difcovered pieces of mineralized amber,
fixed in the rock, being of the fame fort as thofe on
which, the late Don Jofeph Sunal, the king’s phyfician,
publilhed a treatife. There is of this amber, in Afturias,
near Oviedo, but pot fo beautiful as the fpecimen fhewn
to me by that phyfician, I alfo found, in the fame place,
a lump of rock bigger than my fill, having a petrified fhell,
and a piece of dark amber, like colophony, with a vein of
cinnabar,,like a thread, running between. On confiderins
rO