397 



old mine, were formerly found several buckets, and other wooden 

 vessels, which were changed into stone. That these substances 

 might, in these situations, acquire a certain degree of induration 

 from the impregnation with various metallic substances, but parti- 

 cularly with iron, is more probable than that they should have thus 

 become really petrified. The influence of iron in thus forming an 

 apparent petrifaction, is rendered sufficiently evident by the follow- 

 ing account, by Mr. Edward King*. 



" In the year 1745, the Fox man of war was unfortunately stranded 

 on the east coast of Lothian, in Scotland, and there went to pieces ; 

 and the wreck remained about three and thirty years under water: 

 but this last year a violent storm from the north-east laid a part of 

 it bare; and several masses, consisting of iron, ropes, and balls, 

 were found on the sands near the place, covered over with a very 

 hard ochry substance, of the colour of iron, which adhered thereto 

 so strongly, that it required great force to detach it from the frag- 

 ments of the wreck. And, upon examrnation, this substance ap- 

 peared to be sand, concreted and hardened into a kind of stone/' 

 The specimen which was laid before the Society, " contained a piece 

 of rope, adjoining to some iron ring, and probably had been tied 

 thereto. The substance of the rope was very little altered ; but the 

 sand was so concreted round it, as to be as hard as a bit of rock, 

 and retained very perfectly impressions of parts of the ring, just in 

 the same manner as impressions of extraneous fossil bodies are often 

 found in various kinds of strata. 



" Now, considering these circumstances," Mr. King says, " we 

 may fairly conclude, in the first place, that there is on the coasts 

 of this island, a continual progressive induration of masses of sand, 

 and other matter, at the bottom of the ocean, somewhat in the 

 same manner as there is at the bottom of the Adriatic sea, according 

 to the account given by Dr. Donati. 



* Philosophical Transactions, vol. Ixxix. part i. p. 35. 



