LETTER IX; 247 



trouble myfelf to enquire, Whether this growth 

 is effefted by Effluvia, Heats, Spars, Salts, Gfr, 

 You know I have a longifli Flint-llone now by 

 me, which I picked up upon the Beach, near the 

 Fort at Tarmouth^ in Norfolk^ (where they are 

 not uncommon) in ^une laft, out of one end 

 whereof, iffues a (lender marine Plant that is 

 black, and has a bufhy top of a foot long, and 

 whofe Roots are all of a piece with the hard Flint- 

 ftone : Now I infift, that this Stone and thefe 

 Roots, muil: by v/ay of Petrification, have grown 

 from foft to hard not very long ago, unlefs we 

 fuppofe the Plant to have been rooted in the 

 Stone, ever fince the Deluge : But properly fpeak- 

 ing, it is rooted in a brown fubftance, in the hol- 

 low of the Stone, and is now become all of a 

 piece with it, I fliall jull: hint at one more argu- 

 ment, in behalf of my own opinion, in that re- 

 fpedl, which among others, is inferted at Para- 

 graph 6, of Letter 7, ''oiz. A great liv^ Toad was 

 found at Tarmouth^ in the Heart or Centre of a 

 Portland Stone, that meafured three feet in dia- 

 meter : And I alk, Whether the Stone had late- 

 ly grown as I there imagine ? Or whether the 

 poor Toad had been fliut up in it, ever fince 

 Nmh*% Flood ? The reality of the matter of fad 

 cannot be called in queftion^ becaufe there are 

 multitudes of Eje-witnefles to it, now alive in 

 that Town* 



0^4 22, 



