Show STONE THAT BURNS SELF east of the jordan lime lima la Is made from rock that contains its own fuel I 1 while making a trip through the chauran district recently the writers attention was attracted to a curious stone which might be described as a self burning limestone our party came upon some natives burning it and was enabled to see the operation this district la Is south of 0 damascus east of the upper jordan at this place the rock lay in li a stratum between ordinary limestone it was of grayish black color and when freshly broken had bad an odor of petroleum near by were outcrops of what looked like the same material many rods long i and 20 to 3 30 feet thick quarrying Is easily done with primitive picks and other tools as the rock la Is quite soft and full of 0 scams the atone Is broken into small pieces with harn hammers mers and piled up against the baak bank of 0 rock A wall of the same material about two feet high Is roughly laid up around the pile on three sides making a pile of small stone eight to ten feet long and nearly as wide and two feet at the front rising to nearly three times that height at the back where it llos against the bank in building the wall ivall around the pile small holes are left tor for draft and in which to start the fire when the kiln Is ready to burn a few small bunches of straw are placed in the holes mentioned lit ht with a flint and steel and in a short time the whole pile has ignited the men then begin working on a new kiln while the other burns and cools after about two hours ot of burning the stone has all become converted into lime except the stones in the wall and the very top layer which are only about halt burned when cool the lime Is air slacked and sifted to remove any pieces not thoroughly burned which are thrown into a new pile to be fired again the workmen told us that it made a very black smoke with a bad odor like kerosene burning the lime Is white and said to make a very strong plaster superior to the ordinary lime burned with brush this stone is so located that should it prove to be of commercial value it could bo be easily transported consular reports |