* * * * *
METHOD OF MAKING TAR AT ARCHANGEL.--They dig a hole in the ground, of
sufficient size, some two or three fathoms deep, and little more than
half way down they make a platform of wood, and thereon heap earth about
a foot deep, except in the middle, where a hole is left in the form of
a tunnel. They then fill the pit with fir billets piled up from the
platform, and rising about a fathom or more above ground, which part they
wall about with turf and clay to keep in the fire. They command the fire
by quenching: for which use they make a lixivium of the ashes of fir.
When all is ready, they set fire a-top, and keep the wood burning, but
very leisurely, till it has sunk within a foot or two of the partition;
and then they heave out the fire as fast as it is possible; for if it
once laid hold of the tar which is settled down into the lower pit, it
blows all up forthwith. These tar-pits take up a great deal of trouble,
and many men to tend them during the time of their burning, that the fire
may descend even and leisurely, whereby the tar may have time to soak out
of the wood, and settle down into the pit. As it comes from the wood it
is pure tar, but in the pit it mixes with water, which issues from the
wood also; therefore it is afterwards clarified.--_Life of Sir Dudley
North._
* * * * *
AURORA BOREALIS.--According to Crantz, the Greenlanders hold the northern
lights for a game of tennis, or for a dance of departed souls; and this
opinion is not a whit more irrational than the superstition of the
oriental nations, the Greeks and Romans, and all the unenlightened people
of the middle ages, who, in the aurora borealis, and other fiery meteors,
saw fighting armies, flaming swords, chariots and spears, battles and
blood, and even thought that they heard the clashing of arms and the
sound of martial music. In the rainbow the ancient inhabitants of the
north discovered a bridge from earth to heaven, and called it the bridge
of the gods, which was watched by a dog, whom no art could elude, and
whose auditory faculty was such, that he could hear the grass grow or the
wool on the sheep’s back; the Kamschatkadales make of it a new garment
for their aërial spirits, edged with fringes of red-coloured seal-skin,
and leather thongs of various gaudy dyes.