196 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1685. 



tain experiments made upon all parts of the lough, and much time required to 

 make this trial, we cannot expect a speedy resolution of this query ; Dr. Boat, 

 in his Natural History of Ireland, tells us that his brother informed him,, 

 who lived in those parts, that this virtue is found especially about those places, 

 where the black water discharges itself into the lake, but confesses he never 

 could find any person who himself had made the trial, and therefore had this 

 information from report.* 



3. What woods are petrified by the lough? or whether only holly? That not 

 only holly, but also oak, and some other wood has been petrified about this 

 lough, and in the soil adjacent, I have sufficient grounds to conjecture on this 

 account; because some fishermen, being tenants of a gentleman from whom I 

 had this relation, told him, they had found buried in the mud of this lough 

 great trees, with all their roots and branches petrified, and some of such size, 

 that they believe they could scarcely be drawn by a team of oxen. They broke 

 off several branches as thick as a man's leg, and larger, but could not move the 

 main trunk. If we may credit this relation, we must allow some other woods 

 to be petrified besides holly, for holly never grows to that size. -J- 



4. Whether the wood or holly, brought from other places, be as apt to be 

 petrified as what grows in the grounds adjacent to the lough? 



5. What time is requisite to petrify a piece of a determinate size? I heard of 

 no experiment which can resolve this query. 



6. Whether any one has seen the same body partly wood and partly stone ? 

 I was informed by two gentlemen of the north that this may be frequently seen, 

 who alleged they themselves had seen the same body wood and stone. But the 

 only reason for thinking so, being the diversity of colours, which might well 

 enough proceed from several degrees of petrifaction, we may probably think 

 them deceived, for they made no experiments on that part which they reputed 

 wood.j: 



7. Whether the bark has been seen petrified as well as the wood ? The bark 

 is never found petrified, as I am informed by a diligent inquirer, but often 

 somewhat rotten about the stone answerable to the bark. 



8. Whether any one has certainly made experiment of the lough's petrifying, 

 by putting a piece of wood into it, and letting it lie there till it was petrified ? 



• It appears from the observations of Mr. Simon, inserted in the 44th vol. of the Transactions, 

 that the petrifying quality is confined to particular parts of the lake, where the water which spring* 

 up from the bottom abounds in a calcareous impregnation. 



■f It has been already mentioned in a note on Mr. Molyneux's letter, at p. 24 of this vol. of the 

 Abridgment, that petrifactions of other sorts of wood beside holly have been found in this lake. 



% Mr. Simon's observations, before referred to, are very satisfactory respecting this point. 



