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felled, by which a large portion of the juice is disengaged, the effluvia of which, mixing with the atmosphere, affects the persons exposed to it, with the symptoms just mentioned, the tree may be approached and ascended like the other common trees in the fo

rests.

The Antshar, like the trees in its neighbourhood, is on all sides surrounded by shrubs and plants; in no instance have I observed the ground naked or barren in its immediate circumference.

The largest tree I met with in Blambangan was so closely environed by the common trees and shrubs of the forest in which it grew, that it was with difficulty I could approach it. Several vines and climbing shrubs, in complete health and vigour, adhered to it, and ascended to nearly half its height. And at the time I visited the tree and collected the juice, I was forcibly struck with the egregious misrepresentation of Foersch. Several young trees spontaneously sprung from seeds that had fallen from the parent, reminded me of a line in Darwin's Botanic Garden, "Chained at his root two scion demons well;"—while in recalling his beautiful description of the Oopas, my vicinity to the tree gave me reason to rejoice that it is founded on fiction. The wood of the Antshar is white, light, and of a spongy appearance.

Description of the Tschettik.

The fructification of the Tshettik is still unknown; after all possible research in the district where it grows, I have not been able to find it in a flowering

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The root extends creeping to a considerable distance, parallel to the surface of the earth, sending off small fibres at different curves, while the main root strikes perpendicularly into the ground.

In large individuals it has a diameter of two or three inches ; it is covered with a reddish brown bark, containing a juice of the same colour, of a peculiar, pungent, and somewhat nauseous odour. From this bark the poison is prepared.

The stem, which in general is shrubby, sometimes acquires the size of a small tree; it is very irregular in its ascent and distribution: having made several large bends near the surface of the earth it divides (at long intervals) into numerous branches, which attach themselves to the neighbouring objects and pursue a winding course at no great distance from the ground and nearly parallel to it. In some instances the stem rises to the top of large trees; its form is completely cylindrical, and it is covered with a grey spotted bark.

The lesser branches arise from the stem in pairs (opposite) and are very long, slender, cylindrical, divergent or spreading, and covered with a smooth grey shining bark; on these the leaves are placed opposite, in single pairs or on a common footstalk, pinnate in two or three pairs; they are egged, spear-shaped, entire, terminating in a long narrow point, completely smooth and shining on the upper surface, with a few parallel veins beneath. The petioles are short and some

what

what curved. Toward their extremity the shoots produce cirrhi or tendrils, which appear without any regular distribution opposite to the leaflets; and some branches are entirely without them: they are about an inch long, slender, compressed and spirally turned back (recurvati); at their end near the base a small stipula is found.

The Tshettik grows only in close, shady, almost inaccessible forests, in a deep, black, fertile, vegetable mould. It is very rarely met with, even in the wildernesses of Blambangan.

Preparation 1st of the Antshar. -This process was performed for me by an old Javanese, who was celebrated for his superior skill in preparing the poison. About eight ounces of the juice of the Antshar, which had been collected the preceding evening in the usual manner, and preserved in the joint of a bamboo, was carefully strained into a bowl. The sap of the following substances, which had been finely grated and bruised, was carefully expressed and poured into it, viz. Arum, Nampoo (Javanese) Kæmpferia Galanga, Kontshur, Amomum, Bengley, (a variety of Zerambed) common onion and garlic, of each about half a dram; the same quantity of finely powdered black pepper was then added, and the mixture stirred.

The preparer now took an entire fruit of the Capsicum fruticosum or Guinea pepper, and having opened it, he carefully separated a single seed, and placed it on the fluid in the middle of the bowl.

The seed immediately began to reel round rapidly, now forming a regular circle, then darting to

wards the margin of the cup, with a perceptible commotion on the surface of the liquor, which continued about one minute. Being completely at rest, the same quantity of pepper was again added, and another seed of the capsicum laid on as before: a similar commotion took place in the fluid, but in a less degree, and the seed was carried round with diminished rapidity.

The addition of the same quantity of pepper was repeated a third time, when a seed of the capsicum being carefully placed in the centre of the fluid, remained quiet, forming a regular circle about itself, in the fluid, resembling the halo of the moon. This is considered as a sign that the preparation of the poison is complete.

The dried milk of the Antshar having been preserved close a considerable time, can still be prepared and rendered active. A quantity which I had collected about two months before, was treated in the following manner by the same person who prepared the fresh juice. Being infused in as much hot water as was barely sufficient well to dissolve it, it was carefully stirred till all the particles soluble in water were taken up; a coagulum of resin remained undissolved; this was taken out and thrown away. The liquor was now treated with the spices above-mentioned, the pepper and the seed of the capsicum, in the same manner as the fresh juice. The same whirling motion occurred as above described, on the seed being placed in the centre. Its activity will appear from one of the experiments to be related.

2d. Of the Tshettik.-The bark

of

of the root is carefully separated, and cleared of all the adherent earth; a proportionate quantity of water is poured on, and it is boiled about an hour, when the fluid is carefully filtered through a white cloth; it is then exposed to the fire again and boiled down to nearly the consistence of an extract; in this state it much resembles a thick syrup. The following spices, having been prepared as above described, are added in the same proportion as to the Antshar; viz. Kæmpferia Galanga, (Kontshur,) Soonty, &c. Dshey, for common onion, garlic, and black pepper.

The expressed juice of these is poured into the vessel, which is once more exposed to the fire a few minutes, when the preparation is complete. The Oopas of both kinds must be preserved in very close vessels.

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(By T. S. Goad, Esq. of the Hon. Com

pany's Bengal Civil Service.)

Having received an extraordinary account of a natural phenomenon in the Plains of Grobogan, fifty pals or miles N. E. of Solo, a party, of which I was one, set off from Solo on the 8th of September, 1815, to examine it.

On approaching the village of Kuhoo, we saw, between two trees in a plain, an appearance like the surf breaking over rocks, with a strong spray falling to leeward. The spot was completely surrounded by huts for the

We

manufacture of salt, and at a distance looked like a large village. Alighting we went to the Bludugs, as the Javanese call them. They are situated in the village of Kuboo, and by Europeans are called by that name. We found them to be on an elevated plain of mud, about two miles in circumference, in the centre of which immense bodies of salt mud were thrown up to the height of from ten to fifteen feet, in the form of large globes, which, bursting, emitted volumes of dense white sinoke. These large globes or bubbles, of which there were two, continued throwing up and bursting seven or eight times in a minute by the watch. At times they throw up two or three tons of mud. got to leeward of the smoke, and found it to smell like the washing of a gun-barrel. As the globes burst, they threw the mud out from the centre, with a pretty loud noise, occasioned by the falling of the mud upon that which surrounded it, and of which the plain is composed. It was difficult and dangerous to approach the large globes or bubbles, as the ground was all a quagmire, except where the surface of the mud had become hardened by the sun; upon this we approached cautiously to within fifty yards of the largest bubble, or mud-pudding, as it might very properly be called, for it was of the consistency of a custard-pudding, and of very considerable diameter; here and there, where the foot accidentally rested on a spot not sufficiently hardened to bear, it sunk, to the no small distress of the walker.

We

We also got close to a small globe or bubble (the plain was full of them of different sizes) and observed it closely for some time. It appeared to heave and swell, and when the internal air had raised it to some height, it burst and fell down in concentric circles, in which shape it remained quiet until a sufficient quantity of air was again formed internally to raise and burst another bubble. This continued at intervals from about one-half to two minutes. From various other parts of the quagmire round the large globes or bubbles, there were occasionally small quantities of mud shot up like rockets to the height of twenty or thirty feet, and accompanied by smoke. This was in parts where the mud was of too stiff a consistency to rise in globes or bubbles. The mud at all the places we came near was cold on the surface, but we were told it was warm beneath. The water which drains from the mud is collected by the Javanese, and by being exposed in the hollows of split bamboos to the rays of the sun, deposits crystals of salt. The salt thus made is reserved exclusively for the Emperor of Solo. In dry weather it yields thirty dudjins of one hundred catties each, every month, but in wet or cloudy weather less.

In the afternoon we rode to a place in a forest called Ramsam, to view a salt lake, a mud hillock, and various boiling or rather bubbling pools. The lake was about half a mile in circumference, of a dirty looking water, boiling up all over in gurgling bodies, but more particularly in the centre, which appeared like a strong spring;

the water was quite cold, and tasted bitter, salt, and sour, and had an offensive smell. About thirty yards from the lake stood the mud hillock, which was about fifteen feet high from the level of the earth. The diameter of its base was about twenty-five yards, and its top about eight feet and in form an exact cone. The top is open, and the interior keeps constantly working and heaving up mud in globular forms, like the Bludugs. The hillock is entirely formed of mud which has flowed out of the top; every rise of the mud was accompanied by a rumbling noise from the bottom of the hillock, which was distinctly heard for some seconds before the bubbles burst. The outside of the hillock was quite firm. We stood on the edge of the opening and sounded it, and found it to be eleven fathoms deep. The mud was more liquid than at the Bludugs, and no smoke was emitted from the lake, hillock, or pools.

Close to the foot of the hillock was a small pool of the same water as the lake which appeared exactly like a pot of water boiling violently; it was shallow, except in the centre, into which we thrust a stick twelve feet long, but found no bottom. The hole not being perpendicular we could not sound it with a line.

About two hundred yards from the lake were several large pools or springs, two of which were eight and ten feet in diameter. They were like the small pool, but boiled more violently, and smelt excessively. The ground around them was hot to the feet, and the air which issued from

them

them quite hot, so that it was most probably inflammable; but we did not ascertain this. We heard the boiling thirty yards before we came to the pools, resembling in noise a water-fall. The pools did not overflow; of course the bubbling was occasioned by the rising of air alone. The water of one of the pools appeared to contain a mixture of earth and lime, and from the taste to be combined with alkali. The water of the Bludugs and the lake is used medicinally by the Javanese, and cattle drinking of the water are poisoned.

Some Observations on the Salt Mines of Cardona, made during a Tour in Spain, in the Summer of 1814. By Thomas Stewart Traill, M. D. M. G. S.

(From Transactions of the Geological Society, Vol. III.)

These celebrated mines occupy the head of a small valley in the immediate vicinity of Cardona, a town in the province of Catalonia.

This valley extends about half a mile in length, from the river Cardonero to the mines, in a direction from east-south-east to west-north-west. Its north-western side is bounded by a very steep and lofty ridge, the summit of which is crowned by the town and castle of Cardona. The opposite boundary is somewhat less elevated; but both sides are considerably higher than the upper surface of the fossil salt. On entering this valley, the attention is arrested by bold cliffs of a greyish white colour, which are

soon discovered to consist of one vast mass of salt. The sides and bottom of the valley are composed of reddish brown clay, forming a thick bed, from which here and there large imbedded masses of rock salt project in the manner of more ordinary rocks; especially along the winding ascent which leads up to the town of Cardona. The summits of the ridges which bound the valley on each side, are formed of a yellowish grey sandstone of a coarse texture, and containing many scales of grey mica.

The great body of the salt forms a rugged precipice, which is reckoned between 400 and 500 feet in height at the upper extremity of the valley, and is covered by a thick bed of the clay above mentioned.

The precipitous form is partly owing to the manner in which the mine has been wrought for a series of ages. There is no excavation; but the salt has been procured by working down perpendicularly as in an open quarry. The lowest part of the present works has a solid floor of pure salt which is not above the level of the bottom of the valley, where no salt is found; but the real depth of the bed of salt has never yet been ascertained. The upper surface of the salt is not level; but appears irregularly elevated, according to the general outline of the hill in which it occurs.

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The salt has been usually represented as forming an entire mountain but though it here appears supplying the place of common rock, from its being confined to this valley, and not attaining so high a level as the surrounding

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