50 



to inform him, what kind of substance this was. " It is," said Mr. 

 Inman, " a species of fossil wood, which we, sometimes, find on 

 digging in different parts of this mountain." u Wood !" exclaimed 

 Winton, turning round, and depositing the parcel in my hands for 

 my examination, "why really it is as hard and heavy as any stone 

 I ever felt !" " By fossil wood," said Mr. Inman, " I mean that 

 which was once wood, but which is now become stone." A closer 

 examination now showed me, that this substance was more truly 

 curious, than it had even appeared to be on a superficial view ; since 

 I discovered, that its resemblance to wood consisted, not merely in 

 its general external appearance, but that this similitude was disco- 

 verable, in its internal structure : the knots, the concentric lamina, 

 and even the smallest fibres of the wood, being perceptible. Per- 

 ceiving our attention to be so much engrossed by this curious sub- 

 stance, which appeared to us of such an ambiguous nature, Mr. 

 Inman remarked, that as the evening was too far advanced to allow 

 any excursion on the mountain, he would endeavour to amuse us 

 with a little cabinet, containing some curious smaller specimens of 

 a similar kind ; some of which he had acquired, during his travels 

 OH the continent. We soon surrounded the table, on which he, in 

 turn, placed several drawers, containing a considerable number of 

 beautiful and interesting specimens, of what, according to the sug- 

 gestions in your obliging letters of instruction, we should name, 

 vegetable fossils. Not only did I never before view a collection 

 so interesting; but I never had even conceived that there could 

 exist in bodies of this kind, so much beauty ; or that substances, 

 indubitably of a mineral nature, could possess, so distinctly, the 

 characteristic forms of vegetables. 



One specimen, which, as it lay in the drawer, was not to be dis- 

 tinguished from a well smoothed piece of common deal, possessed 

 so great a degree of hardness, that on being struck against a piece 

 of steel, sparks were produced, exceeding in number and brilliancy ? 



