An Extract of a Letter Lately Written by Dr Edward Browne to the Publisher, Concerning Damps in the Mines of Hungary and Their Effects

night and day, when it froze so hard, that the Sap congealed as fast as it issued out. The Cold remitting, the Birches bled afresh, the Sycamores abated very much, and the Walnut-trees quite ceased. 12. We pierced two Sycamores on the North and Southsides, and both of them from equal incisions bled a great deal faster from the North-sides, than the South, which is consonant to the preceding Experiment. 13. We set several Willows with the wrong ends downward, and cut off several Bryars, that had taken root at the small ends. This 29th of May the Willows have shot out Branches near two foot long; and from the top of the Sets, which were a yard high, the Bryars have also grown backwards from that part, which we left remaining to the roots at the lesser ends; they have great leaves and are ready to flower. An Extract of a Letter Lately Written by Dr Edward Browne to the Publisher, concerning Damps in the Mines of Hungary and their Effects. Sir, having been lately in the Copper, Silver, and Gold-mines in Hungary, I hope ere long to give you a particular account thereof; presenting this in the mean time concerning Damps in these Mines; whereof I understand, that they happen in most of them, that are deep; and that they happen not only in the Cuniculi or direct passages, where they walk on Horizontally (by these Mine-men call'd Stollen) but also in the Putei or Perpendicular Cutts or Descents (term'd Schachts by the same.) They are met with not only in places, where the Earth is full of Clay or the like substances, but also where it is Rocky: and one place they shew'd me in the Copper-mine at Hern-groundt, where there had been a very pernicious damp, and yet the Rock so hard, that it could not be broken by their Instruments; but the descent was all made by the means of Gun-powder, ram'd into long round holes in the Rock, and so blowne up. Another place they show'd me, where there is sometimes a damp, and sometimes clear weather. When there is much water in the the Mine, so as to stop up the lower part of this passage, then the damp becomes discoverable, and commonly strong. I procured one to enter it, till his Lamp wear out 4 or 5 times, in the same manner as at Grotto del Bane in Italy. Damps are not all of the same force, but some weaker, some stronger; some suffocate in a small space of time, others only render the Workmen faint, with no further hurt, except they continue long in the place. The Miners (who think them- selves no Workmen, if they be not able to cure a Damp, or to cure the bad Weather, or make the Weather, as they term it) perform it by perspiration, by letting the Aire in and out, and causing, as 'twere, a Circulation of it. In the Mine at Herrn-groundt they did cure a bad Damp by a great pair of Bellows, which were blown continually for many days. The ordinary remedy is by long Tubes, through which the Air continually passing, they are able to digg straight on for a long way without impediment in breathing. For some Cuniculi are 500 fathoms long; which will not seem strange to any one that shall see the Mapp of the Copper-mine at Herrn-groundt or the Gold-mine at Chemnitz. And in the Silver-Trinity-mine by Chemnitz, I pass'd quite under a great Hill, and came out on the other side. At Windischach-mine by Schmmitz they show'd me the place, where 3 men and a Gentleman of quality were lost; for which reason they have now plac'd a Tube there. The like they place over all doores, and over all ways, where they digg right on for a great space, and have no passage through. At Chemnitz they told me, that 28 men had been killed at one time in 4 Cuniculi, 7 in each; and in the sinking of Leopold's- pitt, which is 150 fathoms deep, they were much troubled with damps, which they remedied in this manner. They fixed a Tube to the side of the Schacht or Pitt, from the top to the bottom, and that not proving sufficient, they forc'd down a broad flat board, which cover'd or stopp'd the Pitt, or couched very near the sides of it, on all sides but where the Tube was; and so forc'd out all the Air in the pitt through the Tube; which work they were forc'd often to repeat. And now they having divers other passages into it, the Air is good and sufficient; and I was drawn up through it without the least trouble in breathing. But besides this mischief from poisonous Exhalations, Stagnation of the Air, or Water impregnated with mineral spirits, they sometimes perish by other ways. For there being in these Mines an incredible mass of wood to support the Pitts and the Horizontal passages, (the Putei and Cuniculi) in all places but where 'tis Rocky, men are sometimes destroy'd by the wood set on fire. And in the Gold-mine at Chrennitz the wood was once set on fire by the carelessness of a boy, and 50 Miners smothered thereby; who were all taken out but one, that was afterwards found to be dissolv'd by the Vitrioll water, nothing escaping either of flesh or bones but only some of his cloaths. I am &c. Vienna April. 20 1669. A Chronological Account Of the several Incendium's or Fires of Mount Aetna. The present Fire of Aetna, (whereof there was lately a Relation printed here in the Savoy) will make it appear not unseasonable to reflect back upon former Ages, and to collect from History the severall Eruptions hapned there, together with the times of them, and some observations recorded by Authors concerning the same. To pass by what is related by Berosus, Orpheus and other less credible Authors, about the Eruptions of this Mountain, both at the time of the ingress of the Ionian Colonies into Sicily, and that of the Argonautes (which latter was in the 12th Age before the Christian account;) we shall first take notice of that, which happen'd at the time of the Expedition of Aeneas, who being terrified by the fire of this then burning Mountain, left that Island; whereof Virgil l. 3. Æneid. gives this notable description; Ignariique utæ Cyclopum albamur oris, Portus ab accessu ventorum immovus et ingens, Ipse sed horribilis juxta tonat Aetna ruinis, Interdumque etiam prorumpit ad aethera nubem Turbine fumantem picco et candente favilla. Attollitque globos flammarum, et sidera lambit. Interdum