VOL. XXIV.3 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 125 



The shore before this cliff, as far as the ebbing of the sea permits observa- 

 tion, is rudely paved with stones, several of which are veined with that sort of 

 substance, which by Helmont and other later naturalists, is called ludus Para- 

 celsi : of these stones, the inhabitants have a tradition, that they are formed by 

 the clay, which tumbling down from the clifF, and being washed by the flowing 

 of the sea, are in a short time converted into stone ; and the ingenious Mr- 

 Silas Tayler, in his MS. collections of Harwich and Dovercourt, writes thus 

 concerning it : " The washing of these cliffs discovers a bluish clay, which 

 tumbling down upon the shore, although washed by the sea at high-water, 

 within a short time turns into stone : some may be seen, which are new fallen, 

 as soft as the clay in the cliff; and others, that have lain there longer, crusted 

 over and hard ; but if opened or broke, the clay is still soft in the middle ; 

 others, that have lain longest, petrified to the very heart ; and with these the 

 walls of the town are for the most part built, and the streets generally are 

 pitched." How far this is matter of fact, I will not determine ; and though I 

 must at the same time own that many of the stones are washed out from the 

 stratum at the bottom of the cliff, yet I have sometimes been inclined to Mr. 

 Tayler's opinion, because he lived long upon the spot, being store-keeper of 

 the king's building yard for many years, and by his collections, &c. seems to 

 be a person of probity and learning; and also because several of the stones 

 have cracks or chops in them, as clay and earth have by being exposed to the 

 sun; and there is yet [anno 1702] lying upon that shore a stone, in which a 

 large pile (perhaps of oak) such as was formerly used there to preserve the 

 cliff from the injuries of the sea, evidently appears to be imbedded ; which can 

 owe its situation to no other cause, than by being pressed into the superficies 

 of the clay while soft, and petrifying with it ; which being square, takes off an 

 objection which some might make, had it been round, of its being lodged 

 there in the general deluge. 



I am aware that this manner of petrification is not only different from the 

 common methods nature uses in that operation, but also thwarts the opinions 

 of several learned and ingenuous men ; and it was strenuously opposed by Mr. 

 John Morton of Oxendon in Northamptonshire, when we, with Mr. John 

 Luff kin, were upon the spot; the substance of his discourse imports that he 

 thought, from attentive observations, that those stones are not petrifactions 

 from the stratum of clay. 



As to petrifactions, he adds, " I have only observed these three sorts: 1. A 

 stony incrustation upon sticks, and any thing that lies in the way, in. the pe- 

 trifying springs; the soil in those waters is usually intermixed with particles of 

 stone, that trickle down into it with the water ; and are there detained. Of 



