Emily Dickinson Lexicon

PIS'O-PHALT, n.

Pea-mineral or mineral-pea; a soft bitumen, black and of a strong pungent smell. It appears to be petrol passing to asphalt. It holds a middle place between petrol, which is liquid, and asphalt, which is dry and brittle. – Dict. Nat. Hist. [A mistaken orthography of Pissasphalt, and not at all derived from πισον, a pea.]