- ceeded to view what is termed by the inhabitants
the naphtha hell. Ascending a small hemispherical hill, they found its summit occupied by a diminutive lake, not exceeding fifty paces in circumference, the crumbling, marshy margin of which could only be trodden with the utmost caution. The water, which lay like a black sheet below, had a muriatic taste; and a strange hollow sound, arising out of the extremest depths of the lake, continually smote upon the ear, and increased the horror inspired by the aspect of the place. From time to time black globules of naphtha came bubbling up to the surface of the water, and were gradually impelled towards the shore, where, mixing with earthy particles, they incessantly increased the crust which on all sides encroached upon the lake, and impended over its infernal gloom. At a short distance from this hill there was a mountain which emitted a kind of black ooze impregnated with bitumen, which, being hardened by the sun as it flowed down over the sides of the mountain, gave the whole mass the appearance of a prodigious cone of pitch. In the northern portion of the peninsula they beheld another singular phenomenon, which was a hill, through the summit of which, as through a vast tube, immense quantities of potter's earth ascended, as if impelled upwards by some machine, and having risen to a considerable height, burst by its own weight, and rolled down the naked side of the hill. In this little peninsula nature seems to have elaborated a thousand wonders, which, however, while they astonish, are useful to mankind. It was with the produce of Okesra that Milton lighted up his Pandæmonium:—
From the arched roof,
Pendent by subtle magic, many a row
Of starry lamps and blazing cressets, fed
With naphtha and asphaltus, yielded light
As from a sky.
Returning to Shamakin, which Kæmpfer erro-
