A DEER S HEAD FOUND IN AN OAK. 315 



M. Klein also mentions several other instances of the same kind, 

 and accounted for in the same manner, as treated of by different 

 authors; viz. Solomon Reisel, John Meyer, Luke Schroeck, John 

 Chrit. Gottwald, John James Scheuchzer, and John Melch. Ver- 

 dries. 



2. Large Deer's Head found in the Heart of an Oak* 

 Sir John Clark, F.R.S. 



Being lately in Cumberland, Sir J. C. there observed three curio- 

 sities in W infield- Park, belonging to the Earl of Thanet. The first 

 was a huge oak, at least sixty feet high, and four in diameter, on 

 which the last great thunder had made a very odd impression ; for 

 a piece was cut out of the tree, about three inches broad, and two 

 inches thick, in a straight line from top to bottom. The second 

 was, that in another tree of the same height, the thunder had 

 cut out a piece of the same breadth and thickness, from top to bot- 

 tom, in a spiral line, making three turns about the tree, and enter, 

 ing into the ground above six feet deep. The third was the horn 

 of a large deer found in the heart of an oak, which was discovered 

 on cutting down the tree. It was found fixed in the timber with 

 large iron cramps ; it seems therefore, that it had at first been fast- 

 ened on the outside of the tree, which in growing afterwards had 

 inclosed the horn. In the same park Sir John saw a tree thirteen 

 feet in diameter. 



3. Remarks on the foregoing. 



By Dr. Mortimer. 



This horn of a deer, found in the heart of an oak, and fastened 

 with iron cramps, is one of the most remarkable instances of this 

 kind, it being the largest extraneous body we have any where re- 

 corded, thus buried, as it were, in the wood of a tree. If J. Meyer, 

 and J. Pet. Albrech had seen this, they could not have imagined the 

 figures seen by them in beech-trees to have been the sport of nature, 

 but must have confessed them to have been the sport of an idle 

 hand. To the same cause are to be ascribed those figures of cru- 

 cifixes, Virgin-Marys, &c. found in the heart of trees ; as, for ex- 

 ample, the figure of a crucifix, which I saw at Maestrichr, in the 



