The old man, with the hayseed in his hair, and the stains of bitumen upon his gnarled hands, ate and drank of the best, seeing a glorified vision of his Lily crowned with diamonds at last.

The mummy itself, too, is rather handsome, though that coat of bitumen on the back doesn't improve it.

But can you explain to me why, after taking all that trouble to decorate it, they should have disfigured it with those great smears of bitumen?" "Ah!" said Mr. Jellicoe, "that is quite an interesting question.

It is not unusual to find mummy-cases smeared with bitumen; there is a mummy of a priestess in the next gallery which is completely coated with bitumen excepting the gilded face.

Now, this bitumen was put on for a purposefor the purpose of obliterating the inscriptions and thus concealing the identity of the deceased from the robbers and desecrators of tombs.

" "Speaking of bitumen," said I, "reminds me of a question that has occurred to me.

But what was your question?" "I was wondering whether the bitumen used by the Egyptian artists has ever been known to soften after this great lapse of time.

"The bitumen coating was what we were discussing, Miss Bellingham," said he.

If you stoop down, you can see that the bitumen was daubed freely into the lacings of the back, where it served no purpose, so that even the strings are embedded."

The whole of the back of the mummy-case was coated with bitumen, and it would be easy when once the deceased was safely inside to apply a fresh coat, which would cover up not only the cracks but also the new lacing.

But I got him in at last, and then, when I had closed up the case with a new lacing, I applied a fresh layer of bitumen which effectually covered up the cracks and the new cord.

A dusty cloth dabbed over the bitumen when it was dry disguised its newness, and the cartonnage with its tenant was ready for delivery.

Dr. Daubeny found the mud-volcanoes of Macaluba giving out bitumen, and bubbles of carbonic acid and carburetted hydrogen.

There are likewise springs of rock oil or bitumen.

Seven goodly stacks of hay, with corn-barns proportionable, lie smoking ashes and chaff, which man and beast would sputter out and reject like those apples of Asphaltes and bitumen.

The men of their armies who fled from before the face of the valiant servants of my Lord Ashur, crossed over the Euphrates; in boats covered with bitumen skins I crossed the Euphrates after them; I took six of their cities which were below the country of Bisri; I burnt them with fire, and I destroyed and overthrew; and I brought their movables, their wealth, and their valuables to my city of Ashur.

Of one fact, however, we may be quite certain; that is to say, that the oldest human remains that have been found in Egypt bear upon them traces of the use of bitumen, which proves that the Egyptians at the very beginning of their stay in the valley of the Nile made some attempt to preserve their dead by means of mummification.

The fabric seem'd a wood of rising green, With sulphur and bitumen cast between, To feed the flames: the trees were unctuous fir, And mountain-ash, the mother of the spear; 960 The mourner-yew, and builder oak were there; The beech, the swimming alder, and the plane, Hard box, and linden of a softer grain, And laurels, which the gods for conquering chiefs ordain.

This chemical is full of bitumen and is so fiery that whatever it touches it is sure to burn to a cinder, and it can not be extinguished by any liquid.

To cite them all would not be an easy thing to do, and so we shall recall but three: (1) It has been considered as the result of eruptions of bitumen coming from the depths, and covering and penetrating masses of leaves, branches, bark, wood, roots, etc., of trees that had accumulated in shallow water, and whose most delicate relief and finest impressions have been preserved by this species of tar solidified by cooling.

The portions of coal that contain impressions of the bark of Sigillaria and Lepidodendron allow the elongated, suberose tissue characteristic of such bark to be still more clearly seen. Were we to admit that the bitumen was sufficiently fluid to penetrate all parts of the vegetable debris, as silica and carbonates of lime and iron have done in so many cases, we should meet with one great difficulty.

In fact, the number of fragments of coal isolated in schists and sandstone is very large, and without any communication with veins of coal or of bitumen that could have penetrated the vegetable.

The facts just pointed out are entirely contrary to the theory of the formation of coal by way of eruption of bitumen.

ASPHALT, a mineral pitch of a black or brownish-black colour, consisting chiefly of carbon; also a limestone impregnated with bitumen, and more or less in every quarter of the globe.

The streets are broad and regular, and cut one another at right angles; there are sidewalks of granite, brick, or bitumen; there are lamp-posts in every direction.