'g2 I>ec'embtr 1748. 



the Winds for forme time, but are helped up, 

 lie on both fides of the trees^ which are fallen 

 tdbwm It requires feveral years before a tree is 

 intirely reduced to duft. When the winds tear 

 up a tree with the roots, a quantity of loofe foil 

 commonly omes out with, and fticks to them 

 for forne time, but at laft it drops off, and forms 

 a little hillock* which is afterwards augmented 

 by the leaves* which commonly gather about 

 the roots. Thus feveral inequalities are formed 

 in the woods* fuch as little holes and hills ; and 

 by this means the upper foil muft likewife be 

 heaped up in fuch places. 



Some trees are more inclined to putfify than 

 others. The tupelo-tree (Nyffa), the tulip-tree 

 (LModendron), and the fweet gum-tree (Liquid- 

 ambarj, became rotten in a fhort time. The 

 hiccory did not take much time, and the black 

 took fell fooner to pieces than the white oak j but 

 this was owing to cifcumftances, If the bark 

 remained on the Wood, it Was for the greatefl 

 part rotten, and entirely eaten by worms within, 

 in the fpace of fix, eight, or ten years, fo that 

 nothing was to be found but a reddifli browil 

 duft. But if the bark Was taken off, they 

 'Would often lie twenty years before they were 

 entirely rotten. The fuddennefs of a tree's 

 growth, the bignefs of its pores, and the fre- 

 quent changes of heat and wet in fummer, caufe 

 it to rot fooner. To this it muft be added, that 

 all forts of infeds make holes into the ftems of 

 the fallen trees, and by that means the moiilure 

 and the air get into the tree> which rnuft of 

 ccurfb forward putrefaction, Moft of the trees 



here 



