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ſaid, that in Melos the Pumice is produced in this Manner in ſome other Stone, as this is on the contrary in it. But the Stone in which the Pumice is found, is not at all like the Lipara Stone, which is found in it.
uſually brought among the Pumices, of which thoſe Iſlands always furniſhed a large Quantity) is a ſmall Stone, uſually about the Bigneſs of a Filbert, of an irregular and uncertain Shape, and porous friable Conſtitution, like that of the Pumices, but more eaſily crumbling into Powder between the Fingers than even the ſofteft Kinds of them. The Colour is generally of a duſky grey, and the whole external Face of it evidently ſhews that it has ſuffered a Change by the Fire. The Ancients had theſe Stones in great Eſteem, and Pliny has recorded an idle Tradition concerning them, which, I ſuppoſe, was then generally believed, ſuffita ea omnes beſtias evocari; but at preſent they are ſo little regarded, that the Writers on theſe Subjects have even forgot to name them: and Wormius, the only Naturaliſt of the more late ones, who had actually received them, and gave them a Place in his Muſeum, and a Deſcription in the Hiſtory of it, ſeems not to have known that they ever had any Name at all. I don't know that any Body elſe has obſerved that his lapili cinerei Ætnæ, are the Liparis or Liparæus Lapis of the Antients; but his Deſcription ſo exactly agrees with ſome Stones I have, which I received with ſome Pumices from Hecla, and have always judged to be the Liparæi, that I make not the leaſt queſtion of their being the very ſame: His Words are, Ejuſdem montis (ſc. Ætnæ) et ab eodem tractu, ad me delati ſunt Lapilli, cinerei, obſcuri & aduſti, qui vi ignis naturam ſuam plane amiſerunt, & poroſi ſunt redditi, læves & inequales, ita ut ad naturam Pumicum quam proxime accedant, ſed friabihores ſunt & facile in minutiores partes, vel digitorum compreſſ diſſiliant.
Beſides thoſe which I have from Iceland, I have ſometimes ſeen of them among Quantities of Pumice. I cannot ſay I ever had the Fortune to find any one in a Maſs of the Pumice; or ever had an Opportunity of obſerving their Texture before they had paſſed the Fire: but the Account this Author gives of them may probably enough be true in both Circumſtances; it being very common to obſerve ſmall Stones of the Flint, Pebble, and other Kinds, immerſed in Maſſes of a different Texture; and
