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BOOK IV
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I
shall now take up a second unctuous juice which is naturally related to
sulphur and is called άσφαλτο? by the Greeks. The Latins have named it bitumen. Included under this name are not only the substances the older writers placed here but also naphtha (naphtha), camphor (camphora), maltha (maltha), pittasphalt (pissasphaltus), jet (gagates), Samothracian gem, thracius stone, obsidianus stone and many others classified by Pliny as gems, and natural carbons as well as the earth called άμπίλΖτιτ by the Greeks. Amber (succinum) is
also included here. This juice is known by so many different names
because of variations and qualities by which it is distinguished and
because of the discourses of the people in whose countries it either
originates or is sold.
First
of all the liquid (which people experienced in the nature of things
correctly call "liquid bitumen" since it is usually distilled from the
solid), being similar to olive oil, is especially unctuous and has been
named oleum (oil) by various writers at different times and is now called petroleum (petroleum) because it flows from rocks. This same black juice, when liquid, is called pix (pitch)
by others because of the similarity in color to that of pitch. From
this it is apparent that the name and nature of this substance was
evident and well known to some and obscure and unknown to others. Thus
many names have been given to one and the same thing and, at the same
time, many more names coming from the vocabularies of different races
have also been given to this same juice. The Babylonians called it naphtha, the Samosatians maltha. The Moors, following the Arabs, as did several other races who were influenced by their learning, called it hafral.1
1 Agricola makes the following references to bitumen and related substances in
De Natura Eorum Quae Efnuunt ex Terra, Book I,—
Page
105. "The color of liquid bitumen varies. Some is white, especially the
genus naphtha. Posidonius believed this material to be liquid sulphur.
It flows from the earth in Babylon near Demetriade, in Parthia, in
Mesopotamia and from a mountain they call Gibius on the Mutinian
plains. It also flows into the German Sea and from it 'white amber' is
made. Some is whitish gray as is that found at the port of Sichres,
Arabia. The Arabs call this material 'solidified amber.' 'Solidified
amber' is formed from a bitumen of a similar color which is dug up on
the shore of the bay of the Sudini. Some is reddish yellow such as that
flowing from a spring near Lake Degera in Suebia. It is also found at
Salachites, India. Reddish bitumen is found in the fields around
Modena. Wax-yellow, honey-yellow, and bitumen the color of Falernian
wine is dug up from the German Sea. These are colors common to amber.
Black bitumen flows from many springs in Germany, in Saxony two miles
from the town of Brunon on the road to Scheninga and in the swamps
three miles from Burgedorf; on the border of Apollonia near Nymphaeum;
and in Babylon. Reddish black bitumen comes from a spring at the foot
of Mt. Dester, fifteen miles southwest of Hanover. This bitumen
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61
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