LETTER VII. 169 



Matter, were grown to a large Bulk. That which 

 was moft remarkable in them, was the Frame 

 and Configuration of their Parts. They were 

 cpmpofed of innumerable Tubes of Stone, of dif- 

 ferent fizes, cleaving to one another like Icicles. 

 Each Tube, had a fmall Cavity in its Center, 

 from which its Parts were projedled, in form of 

 Rays, to the circumference, after the manner of 

 the Stones, vulgarly called Thunder-ftones. And 

 Sir Hans Sloan alTures us. That at Jamaica^ fe- 

 veral Rivers do petrify their own Channels, by 

 w^hich they fometimes flop their own Courfes, 

 by a Sediment, and Cement uniting the Gravel 

 and Sand in their Bottoms. 



23.1 fent you a piece of Mofs, that my Friend 

 affured me, did adlually petrify at Knarejboroughy 

 in Torkjlnre, That Tree-Leaves in TorkJJnre^ 

 Derbyjhire^ and other Places, may have water 

 drop upon them, (as well as upon Mofs) and pe- 

 trify all around them, and of courfe mix with 

 their fubflance, till they are fo far of their Shape 

 and Marks, as to gain the name of petrified Leaves, 

 I willingly enough admit : But alas ! I want Faith 

 to believe, that fuch (liort-lived and tender things 

 as Flowers, and Mufhroms, can petrify. 



24. We have, at Afpley\ a Village about feven 

 miles from hence, a Water, which is boldly faid, 

 (and almoft univcrfally credited too) to convert 

 Wood into Stone, a piece or two whereof I have 



feen \ 



