found iti Strau! berries. Irto 



n;markable ; but one of the company at laft called his atten- 

 tion to fome hard black grains which he found in the ber- 

 ries he had eaten, and he foon obferved that grains of the 

 like kind were contained in thofe which he was eatino- him - 

 feif. He did not imagine that thefe grains were iron, but 

 he however wrapped them up in a bit of paper and carried 

 them home with him, in order that he might examine them 

 with more attention. He accordingly tried them by a mao-- 

 net, and having obferved that they were attracted by it, he 

 entertained no doubt that they were real native iron. It 

 deferves to be remarked, that the perfon to whom the ano- 

 nymous naturalift was indebted for this difcovery, and whofe 

 veracity is free from the leaft fufpicion, afferted that he had 

 often before found like particles of iron in the ftrawberries 

 which he ate on the fame farm, Thefe particles were of va - 

 rious forms and fizes, but more or lefs flatted. Their black 

 colour was very fimilar to that of ore found in dirty iron 

 mines, only that it was much paler. 



On clofer examination, by means of a magnifying glafs, 

 thefe bodies appeared to be fragments broken off from larger 

 pieces of iron, fo that, with a little affiftance from the ima- 

 gination, traces of a regular frailure might be perceived on 

 them. But even, whether we fuppofe that they were con- 

 veyed into the fruit as bodies before in a ftate of exiftence 

 or were gradually formed in the interior part of them, the 

 explanation of the phenomenon will ftill be attended with 

 dlfTiculty. Their flatted form feems to oppofe the idea of 

 their having been produced in the fruit; but on the other 

 liand, that of their being conveyed into the fruit with the 

 juices through the ftcm, appears to be attended with much 

 greater difficulty. The mofl: fmgular circumftance is, that 

 fo many of thefe fruit in that diflrift fliould have been fur- 

 nifhed with thefe fmall bodies, and that they fliould have 

 been found exactly in the centre. 



Another indance of native iron being found, mentioned 



by the fame auonynious author, is perhaps lefs Itrikin"-, but 



O4 yet 



