fountain of petroleum. It burns like oil, is of a pungent scent, and a
blackish color. It distills out of several places of the rock all the
year long, but most in the summer time. They gather it up with ladles
and put it in a barrel set on end, which hath a spigot just at the
bottom. When they have put in a good quantity, they open the spigot to
let out the water, and when the oil begins to come presently stop it.
They pay for the farm of this fountain about fifty crowns per annum.
We were told by one Monsieur Beaushoste, a chymist in Montpelier, that
petroleum was the very same with oil of jet, and not to be distinguished
from it by color, taste, smell, consistency, virtues, or any other
accident, as he had by experience found upon the coast of the
Mediterranean Sea, in several places, as at Berre, near Martague, in
Provence; at Messina, in Sicily, etc."

In Harris' "Voyages," published in 1764, an article on the empire of
Persia thus refers to petroleum:

"In several parts of Persia we meet with naphtha, both white and black;
it is used in painting and varnish, and sometimes in physic, and there
is an oil extracted from it which is applied to several uses. The most
famous springs of naphtha are in the neighborhood of Baku, which furnish
vast quantities, and there are also upward of thirty springs about
Shamasky, both in the province of Schirwan. The Persians use it as oil
for their lamps and in making fireworks, of which they are extremely
fond, and in which they are great proficients."

Petroleum has long been known to exist also in the northern part of
Italy, the cities of Parma and Genoa having been for many years lighted
with it.