( 2Q0 ) 



make and texture. ^^ ith the pieces of green plant or v.'eccl I liad ga- 

 thered ; and, upon examining this lafl:, when in the lame Hate as I 

 took it out of the water, 1 law bv a common magiiiher, wliat feemed 

 to me like very thin threads in it, much finer than hairs ; they were 

 round, and their membranes or coats very tranr])arent, and they were 

 filled with great numbers of green globules, of dilferent fizes, the 

 moll of them about the fixth part as large as a globule of tlie human 

 blood. And though this green weed, when 1 lirft laid it todr3% was 

 iji parcels heaped together, to the thicknefs of one's little finger, 

 yet, when dried, it was no thicker than common pajier, w hence may 

 he gathered, what a vaft quantitv of watery particles are contained in 

 this aquatic plant or weed. 



In a word, this fuppofed paper from Courland, which is there 

 reported to have fallen from the clouds, and the green weed or leaf, 

 prepared by me in nnitation of it, are, in their component parts, fo 

 exactly ahke, that they may be faid to be one and the fame. For, 

 in divers of the filaments or threads of the firfi, I could perceive the 

 membranes compofing them to be the fame as in the fecond, and, in 

 an hundred places, I could perceive thefe filaments to be furnilhed 

 with joints, which were alike formed in each fpecimen. 



Thefe obfervations lhew,how far conceit and imagination will lead 

 fome people, and who knows, how many perfons may have pieces 

 of this imaginary paper, treafured up in their cabinets as great 

 rarities ? 





