396 



noticed of Capt. John Perry, made during his labours, so ingeni- 

 ously adapted to the stopping of Dagenham-breach, it is evident, 

 that the Thames intersects a vast bed of bituminous wood (moor- 

 log) ; pieces of which must be perpetually separating from the 

 banks of the river, and falling to its bottom ; and which, being re- 

 peatedly dragged up, have been supposed to have been planted 

 there, for the purpose of facilitating the Roman army in fording 

 this river. Indeed, wherever similar pieces of wood have been thus 

 found, in rivers, &c. near to which history informs us Julius Caesar 

 has ever been, the much altered appearance of the wood seems to 



x * 



have led to the attributing of it to the labours of that distant pe- 

 riod. Thus it is related, by Mr. Swinburne, that " The workmen, 

 in clearing the channel of Brindisi, drew up many of the piles, that 

 were driven in by Caesar. They are small oaks, stripped of their 

 bark, and still as fresh as if they had been cut only a month, 

 though buried, above eighteen centuries, seven feet under the sand*/ 3 

 But a later, and equally intelligent, observer remarks, that, " Dur- 

 ing the civil wars, Caesar ruined the haven of Brundusium, by cast- 

 ing up dams, and sinking vessels. He says nothing of staking it 

 up; neither do I think that there is any good ground for the opi- 

 nion that the oak piles, which were found there, were of Caesar's 

 driving-)-." With respect to the partial petrifaction of one of the 

 timbers belonging to Trajan's bridge over the Danube, already men- 

 tioned, there are, I acknowledge, certain circumstances in the rela- 

 tion respecting it, which render a more particular account necessary 

 before it should be regarded as a true petrifaction. The Abbe Re- 

 villas relates, that the handles of hammers and of hatchets have 

 been found in a petrified state J. Agricola also states, that in an 



* Travels in the Two Sicilies, by H. Swinburne, Esq. vol. ii. p. 301. 

 t Travels of Count Stolberg, vol. ii. p. 162. 



J Ragionamenti della Filosofia Pastorale, in Memoria sopra la Fisica et Storia Natu- 

 rate di diversi Valentuomini, torn. i. p.l 12. 



