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was of opinion, that he was able to prove that it was not of a ve- 

 getable, but of a mineral origin. 



The observations on which he founded this-opinion, will require, 

 however, here to be mentioned only in a cursory manner. His first 

 objection is derived from its quantity ; since it extends here to the 

 depth of seventy feet, and in that of Munden, as we have seen, 

 they had bored to the depth of fifty feet, without discovering its 

 bottom : he thinking, that there could have been no imaginable 

 cause in nature, which could bring together such a mass of fossil 

 wood, as is found in this and similar strata. 



Fossil trees, he remarks, are generally discovered in morasses and 

 soft ground ; where they have either buried themselves by their own 

 weight, or been overwhelmed by some accidental cause : but the 

 Bovey Coal is found in a dry soil, intermixed with clay and sand, 

 and by its regular course and continuance, he thinks, carries the 

 most undoubted marks of never having been disturbed since its 

 original formation. Fossil trees, he likewise observes, preserve 

 their form and size, their length and roundness, their branches and 

 roots, their fibrous texture and strength ; and are either found entire, 

 or in such large pieces, that there is no room to doubt of their na- 

 ture ; since the very species of wood is frequently distinguishable : 

 whereas the Bovey Coal comes out only in flat pieces of a few feet 

 long, like the splinters of large masts ; and on them we discover no 

 signs of roots, branches, or bark ; no round pieces, nor concentric cir- 

 cles, which distinguish the annual growth of trees ; the laminae, which 

 have the appearance of wood, being always horizontal, according 

 to the situation of the pieces in the strata. Again, he observes, if 

 the basis or matrix of this fossil were wood, it would acquire, by 

 being impregnated with bitumen, a greater degree of inflammabi- 

 lity ; whereas it neither kindles, nor consumes so fast as wood. 



The inflammability, and laminated texture, of this fossil, which 

 have been the circumstances leading to the supposition of its being 



VOL. i. Q 



