doubted the truth of it. I had no opportunity of
seeing the experiment; but calling to see a friend who happened to be
just returned home from making it himself, I learned from him the manner
of it; which was to choose a shallow place, where the bottom could be
reached by a walking-stick, and was muddy; the mud was first to be
stirred with the stick, and when a number of small bubbles began to
arise from it, the candle was applied. The flame was so sudden and so
strong, that it catched his ruffle and spoiled it, as I saw. New-Jersey
having many pine-trees in different parts of it, I then imagined that
something like a volatile oil of turpentine might be mixed with the
waters from a pine-swamp, but this supposition did not quite satisfy me.
I mentioned the fact to some philosophical friends on my return to
England, but it was not much attended to. I suppose I was thought a
little too credulous.

In 1765, the Reverend Dr. Chandler received a letter from Dr. Finley,
President of the College in that province, relating the same experiment.
It was read at the Royal Society, Nov. 21, of that year, but not printed
in the Transactions; perhaps because it was thought too strange to be
true, and some ridicule might be apprehended if any member should
attempt to repeat it in order to ascertain or refute it. The following
is a copy of that account.

"A worthy gentleman, who lives at a few miles distance, informed me that
in a certain small cove of a mill-pond, near his house, he was surprized
to see the surface of the water blaze like inflamed spirits. I soon
after went to the place, and made the experiment with the same success.
The bottom of the creek was muddy, and when stirred up, so as to cause a
considerable curl on the surface, and a lighted candle held within two
or three inches of it, the whole surface was in a blaze, as instantly as
the vapour of warm inflammable spirits, and continued, when strongly
agitated, for the space of several seconds. It was at first imagined to
be peculiar to that place; but upon trial it was soon found, that such a
bottom in other places exhibited the same phenomenon. The discovery was
accidentally made by one belonging to the mill."

I have tried the experiment twice here in England, but without success.
The first was in a slow running water with a muddy bottom. The second in
a stagnant water at the bottom of a deep ditch. Being some time employed
in stirring this water, I ascribed an interm