24 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1684. 



to me, and therefore I will not promise for his credit or the fidelity of his 

 inquiry) who positively denies that there is any such thing; but asserts, that the 

 stones that are brought to us as petrified wood, are found deep in sand hills in 

 the country adjoining to the Lough, alleging as an experiment, that a gentle- 

 roan of his acquaintance stuck an oak stake in the Lough 20 years ago, which 

 there remains unaltered. But I conceive this assertion to be groundless, and 

 the experiment falsely made. — For 1st, it is agreed by all, that no wood will 

 petrify in this Lough, except holly;* so that his applying an oak stake was 

 improper; 2dly, as to their being found in sand hills, they may easily be sup- 

 posed in process of time to have been brought thither, and left there: for I do 

 not find he asserts, that they are found so deep in those hills that have not 

 been dug up ; and 3dly, it is with some probability asserted, that the earth 

 about Lough Neagh has this petrifying quality, and we may well imagine that 

 these sand hills especially are not destitute of it. For I am certainly informed, 

 that a gentleman of the country about this Lough, a little before the rebellion, 

 cut down some timber for building, and amongst others cut down a large holly 

 tree; but being diverted by the rebellion from building, his timber lay on the 

 ground in the place where it was felled, on the banks of the Lough, all the 

 time of the war; till at last, the kingdom being settled, the gentleman went 

 to look for his timber, and found the other timber overgrown with moss, and 

 the holly petrified, though the water of the Lough had never reached it. 



I query whether the holly itself, that grows upon the banks of this Lough, 

 may not be more apt to be petrified, than the same wood growing elsewhere, 

 and brought thither, and put into the Lough ; for certainly if the ground has 

 this quality, this is very likely to follow. 



That what we call Lough Neagh stone was once wood, is most probable on 

 these accounts: 1st, it will not stir with acids, which is a property observed 

 by Dr. Grew on some petrified woods, in the Museum of the Royal Society; 

 though the doctor there makes it an argument for his suspecting they are 

 lapides sui generis ; 2dly, the Lough Neagh stone will burn and flame; and 

 the smoke of it smells like the smoke of wood; 3dly, when burnt it betrays 

 the very grain of wood, with the other vessels belonging to vegetables. But 

 what confirms me above all, that these stones were once wood, is, that I 

 have many of them by me of various degrees of petrification, I suppose 

 according to the time they remained in the water, which I could never hear 



• Some sorts of wood, on account of the closeness of their grain, must be less liable than others 

 to be penetrated by the .petrifying water ; but the assertion that holly is the only wood petrifiable in 

 this lake is contradicted by the observations of Mr. Simon. Among these petrifactious, he found 

 some which resembled the wood of the ash, the fir, and the oak, as well as the holly. 



