VOL. XXVII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 637 



SO near one another, as that their branches were, as it were matted, grew over, 

 and gave place to one another, as we every day see in roots of trees where they 

 grow too close. I saw once the body of a fir tree dug up so large, as to be 

 judged fit for the main post of a windmill; which was discovered, as many of 

 them are, which are not found in digging turf, by the grass, which grow over 

 it being, in a very dry summer, of a yellowish colour. 



The Rev. Mr. de la Pry me sent me some of the cones found with this 

 timber in the great fens of Lincolnshire, which differed in nothing from those 

 of the Scotch fir, which is so plentifully growing in Scotland at this day, and 

 which some years since were judged so proper by some to afford masts for the 

 Royal Navy, that I think some persons were sent thither for that purpose. But 

 they were not able to bring about what they intended, from the difficulties in 

 the roads by which they were to be conveyed to the sea; which, in Norway, I 

 have heard is in a great measure effected by the rivers. Caesar indeed, in his 

 Commentaries says, that the sorts of timber in this island, are the same as in 

 France, praeter fagum et abietem, except beach and fir. But lord Cromartie's 

 account is a sufficient witness of his mistake as to one sort of these trees, and 

 the beaches in the chiltern countries near London, prove the same as to the 

 other. For the uses of this under-ground timber, besides those of other wood, 

 it is split into pieces ; and being lighted, supplies the use of candles. It is 

 also made into ropes; as may be seen in the Musaeum of the Royal Society, by 

 a long piece of such rope, bought in Newry market in Ireland, and presented 

 to the Royal Society; the long soaking in water having rendered the wood of 

 those trees fit to be made into ropes. This seems to prove, that as the soaking 

 of hemp, flax, aloe leaves, &c. in water, dissolves the pulpy part, and leaves 

 the fibrous, fit for making into threads and ropes, so the long soaking of trees 

 may, in length of time, effect the same, or a similar change in those of wood 

 and timber. 



There are some things remarkable which may here be noticed. One is, that 

 I have seen what I thought had been pieces of wood, not only in clay pits, but 

 even in quaries or stone pits, in the blocks of stone raised out of their strata, 

 or layers ; and have been also assured by Mr. Bellers, that he has seen large 

 pieces of wood in the stone pits in Gloucestershire ; and also that in Lancashire 

 there is a moss, or turf bog, where the black spongy mould, made use of for 

 peats, smells very strong of bitumen, or petroleum; of the oil of which it 

 yields a very great quantity by distillation. And likewise, the late Sir Edward- 

 Hannes told me, that near the lord Blessington's house at Blessington in Ireland, 

 there appeared a light where the horses trampled with their feet on a certain 

 space of soft ground. On my desire he procured me some of this mould. 



