1792 4 curious petrifaction. 143: 
A CURIOUS PETRIFACTION. 
Te is just now in the pofsefsion of Mr James Haig, 
merchant in Leith, a petrifaction of the most singular kind 
Thave ever heard of, wz. a large mafs of petrified teak 
wood, which was taken out of the heart of a large teak. 
tree, seemingly sound, which was working upin Bengal 
for thip timber; but on penetrating to the heart of 
the tree the workmen found it consisted of one so. 
lid mafs of stone, of such extraordinary hardnels that no 
tool they had could penetrate it. A large peice of this 
mafs, weighing nearly one hundred weight, was broken: 
off, and sent home by Mr William Haig of the Lord 
Hawkesbury Indiaman, along with many other curious 
specimens in natural history which he sent home to his 
Aisthies This specimen, consisting of silicious matter 
ef the hardest texture, exhibits the veins and strie of 
the wood in the most perfect manner, so that any person. 
that had ever seen the teak wood would know it by the 
$pecimen. 
To account for the conversion of wood into stone in any 
Situation, is not an easy task to the philosopher. Did these pe- 
_trifactions consist of the fibres of wood invcloped in a trans- 
parent stony incrustation, the difficulty would be in some 
measure obviated; but here the appearance of the wood 
dlone rémains ; for every particle of every fibre is entirely 
stone of the hardest texture, which admits of the finest polith, 
The whole of the wood then has been difsolved, except the 
edlouting particles, which remain exactly in the same posi- 
tion they bore in the wood itself, perfectly unchanged, while 
the substance which corroded the wood has beeh deposi- 
ted in its place. 
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