The more remote of such treatises which have come down to us seem to indicate the trend of the researches respecting what must have been in those times unsatisfactory inks. Scattered through them appear a variety of formulas which specify pyrites (a combination of sulphur and metal), metals, stones and other minerals, soot, (blue) vitriol, calxes (lime or chalk), dye-woods, berries, plants, and animal colors, some of which if made into ink could only have been used with disastrous results, when permanency is considered. The black ink formulas of the eighth century are but few, and show marked improvement in respect to the constituents they call for, indicating that many of those of earlier times had been tried and found wanting. One in particular is worthy of notice as it names (blue) vitriol, yeast, the lees (dregs) of wine and the rind of the pomegranate apple, which if commingled together would give results not altogether unlike the characteristic phenomena of "gall" ink. Confirmation of the employment of such an ink on a document of the reign of Charlemigne in the beginning of the ninth century on yellow-brown Esparto (a Spanish rush) paper, is still preserved. Specimens of "pomegranate" ink, to which lampblack and other pigments had been added of varying degrees of blackness, on MSS., but lessening in number as late as the fourteenth century, are still extant in the British Museum and other public libraries. CHAPTER VI. INK OF THE WEST. REMARKS OF ARCH-DEACON CARLISLE--WHEN READING AND WRITING CEASED TO BE MYSTERIES--ORIGIN OF THE WORDS CLERK AND SIGN--SCARCITY OF MANUSCRIPTS --FOUNDING OF IRISH SCHOOLS OF LEARNING IN THE SEVENTH CENTURY--MONKS NOT PERMITTED TO USE ARTIFICIAL LIGHT IN PREPARING MSS.--OBSERVATIONS OF MADAN ABOUT THE HISTORY OF WRITING DURING THE DARK AGES--INK- WRITTEN MSS. TREASURES. THE ancient history of the art of writing in more northern sections of the Western world, William Nicolson, Arch-Deacon of Carlisle, author of "The English Historical Library," London, 1696, tells very quaintly: