VOL. XLI.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. il(i| 



was, that in another tree of the same height, the thunder had cut out a piece 

 of the same breadth and thickness, from top to bottom, in a spiral line, making 

 3 turns about the tree, and entering into the ground above 6 feet deep. The 

 third was the horn of a large deer found in the heart of an oak, which was dis- 

 covered on cutting down the tree. It was found fixed in the timber with 

 large iron cramps ; it seems therefore, that it had at first been fastened on the 

 outside of the tree, which in growing afterwards had inclosed the horn. In 

 the same park Sir John saw a tree 13 feet diameter. 



Remarks on the foregoing. By the Editor, Dr. Mortimer. N° 454, p. 236. 



This horn of a deer, found in the heart of an oak, and fastened with iron 

 cramps, is one of the most remarkable instances of this kind, it being the largest 

 extraneous body we have any where recorded, thus buried, as it were, in the 

 wood of a tree. If J. Meyer, and J, Pet. Albrech had seen this, they could 

 not have imagined the figures seen by them in Beech-trees to have been the 

 sport of nature, but must have confessed them to have been the sport of an 

 idle hand. To the same cause are to be ascribed those figures of crucifixes. 

 Virgin Marys, &c. found in the heart of trees ; as, for example, the figure of 

 a crucifix, which I saw at Maestricht, in the church of the White Nuns of 

 the order of St. Augustin, said to be found in the heart of a walnut-tree, on 

 its being split with lightning. And it being usual in some countries to nail 

 small images of our Saviour on the cross, of Virgin Marys, &c. to trees by the 

 road-side, in forests, and on commons ; it would be no greater a miracle to 

 find any of these buried in the wood of the tree, than it was to find the deer's 

 horn so lodged. 



Sir Hans Sloane, in his noble museum, has a log of wood brought by Mr. 

 Cunningham from an island in the East-Indies, which, on being split, exhibited 

 these words in Portuguese, da boa ora. i. e. Det [Deus] bonam horam. 



On the Eruption of Vesuvius, in May 1737- By N. M. d!Aragona, Prince of 

 Cassano, and F. R. S. N° 455, p. 237, 



Mount Vesuvius is about 7 miles distant from Naples, and 4 miles from the 

 sea. It rises in the middle of a large plain ; and the foot of it begins from the 

 sea-coast, which growing gradually higher, reaches the first plain, to which 

 one can easily ride on horseback. The figure of the plain is nearly circular, 

 being about 5 miles in diameter, and half a mile perpendicular height above 

 the level of the sea. This is the basis of the mountain, out of which arises 

 another, called Monte Vecchio, whose perpendicular height is about 4O0 



VOL. VIII. 3 A 



