356 [Proc.B.N. F. C, 



fashioned it they cast it into the lough, where it lies to the be- 

 ginning of the year, and at the beginning of the year it is 

 found to be stone, and the lough is called Lough Echach." I 

 need hardly say that if this petrifying process was so rapid and' 

 simple, an estate on the lough shore would be a valuable property 

 indeed. 



In a famous but somewhat rare book (Ireland's Natural His- 

 tory, by Arnold Boate, dated about 1650), there is a section of 

 a chapter devoted to this subject. In section 7, chapter 9, he 

 writes :—*' Before we make an end of this Chapter we must say 

 something of the wonderful property which generally is ascribed 

 to Lough Neaugh, of turning Wood into Stone ; whereunto 

 some do add, to double the wonder, that the Wood is turned 

 not only into Stone, but into Iron ; and that a branch or pole 

 being stuck into the ground, somewhere by the side where it 

 is not too deep, after a certain space of time one shall find that 

 piece of stick which stuck in the ground turned into Iron, and 

 the middle, so far as it was in the water, into Stone, the upper 

 end which remained above the water keeping its former nature. 

 But this part of the History I beleeve to be a Fable ; For my 

 Brother, who hath been several times in places not far distant 

 from that lough, and who, of the English thereabouts inhabit- 

 ing, hath inquired this business with singular diligence, doth 

 assure me that he could never learn of any such thing, but that 

 the turning of Wood into Stone was by everyone beleeved for 

 certain, as having been tryed divers times by severale persons ; 

 saying, moreover, to have understood of them that the water 

 hath this virtue onely at the sides, and that not everywhere, 

 but onely in some few places, especially at that part where the 

 River Blackwater dischargeth itself into the lough. He could 

 never come to speak with any persons who had themselves 

 tryed this matter, but with several who affirmed that to their 

 knowledge it had certainly been done by others of their 

 acquaintance." 



Harris, in his description of the County Down (1744), goes 

 very fully into this matter. After treating of the healing qua- 



