CHAP, iv S Y L V A 99 



4 whole piece retain'd the exact shape of wood, having 

 4 many of the conspicuous pores of wood still re- 

 4 maining, and shewing a manifest difference visible 

 4 enough between the grain of the wood and that of 

 4 the bark ; especially, when any side of it was cut 

 4 smooth and polite; for then it appear 'd to have a very 

 4 lovely grain, like that of some curious close wood. 



4 Next (it resembled wood) in that all the smaller, 

 4 and (if so I may call those which are only to be 

 4 seen by a good glass) microscopical pores of it, appear 

 4 (both when the substance is cut and polish'd trans- 

 4 versly, and parallel to the pores) perfectly like the 

 4 microscopical pores of several kinds of wood, re- 

 4 taining both the shape and position of such pores. 



* It was differing from wood, 



4 First, in weight, being to common water, as 3 

 4 to i. whereas there are few of our English woods 

 4 that, when dry, are found to be full as heavy as water. 



4 Secondly, in hardness, being very near as hard as 

 4 flint, and in some places of it also resembling the 

 4 grain of a flint ; it would very readily cut glass, and 

 c would not without difficulty (especially in some 

 4 parts of it) be scratch'd by a black hard flint : it 

 4 would also as readily strike fire against a steel, as 

 4 also against a flint. 



4 Thirdly, in the closeness of it ; for, though all the 

 4 microscopical pores of the wood were very conspic- 

 4 uous in one position, yet by altering that position of 

 4 the polish 'd surface to the light, it also was manifest 

 4 that those pores appear'd darker than the rest of the 

 4 body, only because they were fill'd up with a more 

 4 dusky substance, and not because they were hollow. 



4 Fourthly, in that it would not burn in the fire ; 

 4 nay, though I kept it a good while red-hot in the 



