Note 22 — Chapter XXXIV · New fishery;—New experiments and chase;—New discoveries and house.

From the moment I discovered gypsum to be the basis of the crystal salt22 in our grotto, I foresaw the great advantages I should derive from it for our undertaking; but being unwilling to enlarge the dimensions of our dwelling by digging further, I tried to find a place in the continuation of the rock, which I might be able to blow up: I had soon the good fortune to meet with a narrow slip between the projections of the rocks which I could easily, by the means I proposed, convert into a passage that should terminate in our work-room. I found also on the ground a quantity of fragments of gypsum, and removed a great number of them to the kitchen, where we did not fail to bake a few of the pieces at a time when we made a fire for cooking, which, thus calcined, rubbed into a powder when cold: we obtained a considerable quantity of it, which I put carefully into casks for use when the time should come for finishing the interior of our dwelling. My notion was, to form the walls for separating the apartments of the squares of stone I had already provided, and to unite them together with a cement of this new ingredient, which would be the means both of sparing the timber, and increasing the beauty and solidity of the work.