Royal Society. 325 
branches, nor budding of leaves as is the caic in trees ; neither 
does it alter its fibres, but has them alike in every part j and 
the' relcmbling wood yet it does not grow round but flatter: 
Upon the Samblan coaft are hillocks on all hands, efpecially at 
Krayitepelkn^ which appear at a diilance like hillocks of earth, 
but upon a nearer approach like heaps of bark 5 the upper part, 
as being dried by the fun, was a greyifh cruft, and upon remov- 
ing this, the next was a large, fmooth and /hining crufb, as black 
as pitch, which, if cut with a knife, prefents to the view a con- 
texture of a great number of very fofc barks j at the root of 
thefe hillocks the earth is moift, cohering together by a glutinous 
liquor, exactly taking the prints of the fingers when you touch 
it, but fo as to make them black: M. Hartman is of opinion 
that the barky fit earth of thefe hillocks gives origination to 
the '^ruffian foffile wood 5 nor does this wood differ from the 
bark, except in its drinefs and in fome degree of Iblidity, by which 
being more compact it coheres the clofer by the great extenfion of 
its fibres j the barky hillocks have their origin from this moift 
tenacious earth, which, when macerated by the fait water of the 
lea, together with the other fubterraneous falts and the fuperfluous 
moilture evaporated, is either dried up by the air or heat of the 
fun; and when this fatty moifture is exhaled, or retired inwards, 
the parts are feparated from each other 5 other parts that abound 
in this glewy iublhnce, do mutually cohere, tho' in crufts, and 
have the appearance of wood : That the bark and wood are of 
a bituminous nature appears both by the fatnefs of the earth and 
by the fire 5 for they readily take fire, and finell of fulphur; 
when diftilled they yield fome oily particles, that fmell like oe- 
troleum, only that the liquor has Ibmething of a fat amber fcent • 
next to 'Bitumen^ the fubterraneous lalts forward the produ6lion 
of the bark and wood, for their drinefs and cruftinefs are owing 
to thefe, and they clofely adhere to themj vitriol, as is above 
mentioned, furrounds the bark and grows together with it 5 the 
efFe6is of other falts upon it are not 16 evident, yet M. Hartman 
found in the interftices of that barky fubllance in very dry wood, 
little fparkling cryftals and bright flreaks of fait, which had 
little or no relcmblance to vitriol, being either altogether infipid 
or of a fA'eetifh tafte, and of fome degree of aftringencyj 
pouring water upon them, the lee tafted of allum or rather of iron, 
but fo as ftili to retain fome vitriolic tafte, which became more 
lenfible as the lee was thick, with the Iweetilh relifb of allum or 
iron, he alio extracted nitre from this wood, after feparating, by 
leaking a ftrong lee, the particles of vitriol 5 poffibly the fmall 
cryftals 
