collection, relating to many branches of knowledge, from Syria, Egypt, and the Archipelago, whither he travelled; as well as in the island where he lives, would give fome honour to our country, if the world was made acquainted with it. The Inquirer wishes, that this gentleman would purfue his laudable defign, and that others being hereby apprized of it may contribute to it. As many fpecimens as could be fpared, without incroaching upon the foundation of this book, are given to inlarge that worthy gentleman's collection.

There are above one hundred fpecimens more, which are extremely well worth viewing, yet are omitted in the printed defcriptions; left the reader fhould think himfelf too long detained, from the principal matter of this book, to which this, and the preceding lectures are only preparatory; and therefore only fome deferiptions taken here and there from the different claffes, as moft neceffary to the main defign, are exhibited to the perufal of the reader. In as much as the place has been already mentioned, where the whole collection is depofited, till fome eminent purchaser shall lodge them in fome neceffary repofitory of more perma nence, than private property can be fuppofed to be, the curious may have recourfe to them for ocular, and more general proofs of what has and fhall be faid of them.

LECTURE III.

AAAE avaids MOLES SAXO-LIGNEA, plate 3. page 46.

T

HIS wonderful faxo-ligneous mafs, is extremely hard on the outfide, emitting fire upon collifion with steel in great plenty: Yet has it wood, which is very foft, internally. C, D are two furfaces of a fragment of it, broken with a good deal of labour, from the part where there is now a cavity in a *; this fragment has wood in it, in the line bc and is a strong prefumptive evidence, that more wood lies concealed within the ftone. A good deal was picked out of that cavity by the curious, who firft faw this fpecimen. The weight of the stone, before the fmall fragment was feparated from it, was feven hundred pounds, being weighed at the public crane of a market town.

The colour of this ftone in the furface is white ftained with yellow, this being owing to a bed of yellow gravel, in which it was found, and part of which is to be feen preffed into the little crevices. For the true external colour is white, like that of a firm kind of chalk; but the matter which affords this colour is very thin, not exceeding that of an Englifh filver penny, and capable of being altered by rain; for when it is wet, the ftone in fome parts appears of a blue colour. The internal part of the stone is a dark grey, that is, any part which is expofed to view, by the breaking, which likewife would appear blue, was it brought to as fmooth a polish, as fome parts of the external furface. It was found two miles from the lake, on the fide of the river Camlin (v), above the furface of the water, which at that time was very low,

(v) See the frontispiece of this book. *A and B are two faces of the fame mafs.

low, about three feet, it being a perpendicular bank of gravel, with a fmall mixture of yellow clay, and under another perpendicular bank of the fame kind of gravel, about fix feet high. The perpendicular parts of these banks, were barren gravel as if newly broken, yet above was good grazing ground, and below was a skin of grafs incompaffing the ftone, which lay almost totally immersed in the bed, in the posture in which the ftumps of anciently decayed trees commonly appear. Although it has the evident appearance of a stump of a large tree, including part which should be under ground, yet is there no appearance of roots extending from it, nor did the bed afford any evident indication, of there ever having been any more of the tree, to which it belonged, in that place. Therefore this was not its native bed; for otherwise there would have been at least, fome veftigia of the roots either in the form of wood, found or rotten, or of wood metamorphofed into stone, as this mass for the most part is. Its white furface is an indication of its having been long expofed to the fun or open air; because all the fpecimens hereafter defcribed as found above ground, are of that colour, and those found under ground, are black. It may be proper to inquire how this mass was brought hither. It is well known that rivers fubject to floods, or more properly montaneous torrents frequently roll large maffes of matter along with them if it be clay torn from its ftratum, it breaks it by frequency of collifion in its motion, and dropping here and there the weightieft of its conftituent parts, forms bottoms of gravel in the channels of rivers, but the lighter parts being longer born up are carried further, and make fhores of fand to lakes, and to harbours of the fea: Where the water spreading themselves, lose their force, and the fand fubfides and forms BARS, always more or lefs incómmodious for fhipping. The earthy parts being capable of more comminution than fand, are alfo capable of longer fufpenfion; and either fubfide later, and are perhaps foon difturbed again, or are carried into the fea, and by a diffufion with that immenfe mafs of water make part of its nature; are born up into the air in vapour, and reftored again to the earth, in rains, dews &c. For all thefe have: earth in them. But large maffes of matter, fuch as this fpecimen, not capable of eafy comminution, are, when violently torn from a native bed, foon interrupted by obstacles, such as rocks, trees &c. and being rolled

J

† See propofitions demonftrated in the first lecture..

on:

on the uneven bottom, upon account of the weight; many angular parts and prominences fuch as roots, must be broken off.

The native bed therefore of this faxo-ligneous mafs, is not far from the place where it was found, and fearch might be made for it very near, if the proximity of a fall in the river, which is marked in the map (x), and reprefented in the frontispiece of this book, did not fhew the poffibility of its being eafily rolled down that space, which being a gradual declivity of confiderable length, aided the force of the flood.

A Clergyman, fince dead, whose station being in this neigbourhood, gave him frequent opportunities of wading in this river, for he was fond of fishing, informed the Inquirer, that he often food upon an extraor dinary mafs of matter, in a particular part of that river, which he ufed often to admire, but being more of the rural sportsman, than the philofopher, he did not examine into it. Being removed thence forty miles, when he related this, he promised to fhew the place, whenever he went into that country: Death preventing this, deprives the Inquirer of the ability of information in that particular, for his own fearches did not fucceed.

Let it fuffice to say, that fearch must be made, according to the course of the river, at greater diftances from the lake, and that the lake never had any inftrumentality in the production of this rare phænomenon: Because its water at the highest never reached this place where this fpecimen was found,

A latin infcription is cut on this ftone with two defigns, as well to per petuate the knowledge of the discovery, with regard to time, place and other circumstances, as to discover the true qualities of the matter. The workman informed him, that he never cut à ftone which was fo inju→ rious to tools before: For although he had cut ftones that were harder, yet none of them took off the edge of steel fo foon; and almost at every stroke he could fhew to the naked eye, the glistening particles of steel upon the stone, as well as the injury done to the inftrument: This was in the rough work neceffary to prepare the fhield for the infcrip tion ; in half an hours time he fpoiled ten tools, which were rendered ufelefs

C

ر

...i

(*) See Plate prefixt to the following Lecture. Numb. 1. at i; also the Frontispiece.

lefs without sharpening, and was forced to get another fet. When the letters were cutting, he obferved little lines of cryftalline matter, fcarce perceivable to the naked eye, which were fo extremely hard, as to occafion gaps in the fteel: And in many places, he faid, he found it very brittle, in reducing the part defigned for an infcription into the form of a fhield; for it often fplit into little chips like wood. This was not an artifice to inhance the price of the work, because an agreement was made before hand for the execution.

C and D are two representations of the fragment, broken from the top of the large mafs, at a. And because this fragment has wood in it in the line be, the large mafs in all probability, contains internally a good deal of it: For there may now in the fame place be picked out with the point of a knife fome wood, although in two years time fince the finding the fpecimen, this has been often done to fatisfy the curious.. Number II. INGENS LIGNO-SAXEA MOLES. plate 4..

Corpora junguntur,

mifta duorum

-Neutrumque et utrumque videntur.

This mafs of wood and stone continuous is as much as two able men can lift in a frame, whofe joints are strengthned with iron. For being carried above fixty miles by land from the lake to the capital of the kingdom, and being the reverfe of the former ftone; wood on the outfide, and stone within (intra quoque vifcera faxum eft) it was neceffary to frame it, that it might be fixed in fo fteady a manner, as not to lofe by friction the tender part of its fubftance, which lay on the outfide: Yet fome did fall off, and the hafty curiofity of many gentlemen, laying hold of the ligneous part uncautiously, occafioned much more to fall off; in fo much, that whereas the wood lay on every part of this large fpeci men, at least one foot thick, except at the ends, where it was broken in the raising from a fimilar mafs, to which it was continuous; it is now only two inches thick in any part, and perhaps in a little time may be much lefs, as the curiofity of many perfons remains to be fatisfied,

who