Il8 The Statural Hi/lory 



vaft a bignefs,that I guefs they cannot be lefs than a tun in weighti 

 I am fure that which lies higheft on the Hill, and is here repre- 

 fented Fig.$ . is fo much at the leaft. Of thefe all that Weftern 

 fide of the Hill feems to be compofed, if one may guefs by their 

 appearance above the ground on each hand the way ; but how 

 they ihould come there, or with what ^nbnal-mo\d formed (if 

 not by fome yeaAhrplafiic power in the earth") 1 leave to the fa- 

 vorers of that opinion to find. 



145. Hither alfo I muft refer for the very fame reafon, a fort of 

 ftone found in the Quarries of rubble ftone near Shotover, com- 

 pofed as it were of filaments like hair, which yet muft not be the 

 Polythrix of Pliny x becaufe nor greenifh, nor the Bofirychites of 

 Zoroaftres, or the Corfoides of the fame Pliny 1 , becaufe neither 

 gray nor long. However, let it be a Thrichites (though the word 

 be differently ufed by Diofeorides z ) and the rather placed here,be- 

 caufe moft like the fhort hair of beajls : Of colour it is yello wifti, 

 and each hair (as they appear in the Micro/cope') feems tohe firiated 

 and channelled its whole length ; but to the naked eye they (hew 

 themfelves only in columns, which at certain diftances are all joint- 

 ed, as in Fig. 7. 



146- Befide the ftones reprefenting the parts of the Viviparous, 

 I have met with one that feems to belong to the oviparous Quadru- 

 pedes, and that is a Bufonites or Toad-Hone, which perhaps may 

 better deferve its name, than any yet mention'd by other Authors. 

 For by my Bufonites or Toad-fione, I intend not that fhining po- 

 \ift\'d fione, firft demonftrated by the Ingenious and Learned Dr. 

 Merret , in His Majefiies prefence, to be nothing elfe but the 

 jaw-tooth or grinder of the Lupus marinus, and fo confeft to be 

 by the Gold-fmiths that fold them. But a certain reddifh liver- 

 colour'd real y?o/ze,indeed of the form of thofe of the Sharkrfifi? 

 i. e* like the fegment of nfphere, convex at the top, and concave 

 underneath, as in Tab. 7. Fig. 8. but found amongft the Gravel 

 in Magdalen Coll. Walks : and may be fo called (as I prefume the 

 others are) from fome refemblance they have to the figure of a 

 Toads skull, not that there comes any fuch thing out of a vexed 

 toads head, as is commonly and no lefs fabuloufly reported. 



147. Ihejlones that refcmble the parts of Men being next to 

 be confider'd, I fhall begin with thofe that have relation to the 



Nat Hi ft. /it. 17. cap. 19. 1 idem loco titato. * Lii. 5 cap. 1 14, 



ktad* 



