Note 2 — SECTION I. Of Gunpowder.

Potash, or the vegetable alkali, is generally obtained from wood-ashes; but sometimes from the tartar, or from the lees of wine: what is used in England is generally imported from the north, where there is an abundance of wood, to allow of its being burnt for this purpose.

This Nitrate of Potash exists in a natural state, but is generally in very small quantities. It is found at the surface of the ground in some parts of Persia and the East Indies, and is mostly united with a kind of yellowish marl, which they dig from the cliffs on the sides of hills, exposed to the northern and eastern winds.