1884-1885.] 357 



lities of its waters, he writes : — " The second property ascribed 

 to this Lake — viz., of petrifying and converting Wood into 

 Stone, challenges some Attention ; and the more so, as Anti- 

 quity and universal Consent have conspired to give it this 

 Quality. But Fable has been fruitful in adding a remarkable 

 Particular to this Property ascribed to the Lough — viz.. That 

 the Wood is turned partly into Stone and partly into Iron." 



Harris does not seem to have been convinced of this virtue 

 said to be possessed by the water or soil of the lough, and in an 

 ingenious manner tries to set it aside. After enumerating the 

 arguments given in support of the belief, he thus reviews 

 them : — " To the First We answer, * It is now a determined 

 point among Naturalists, that Stones Vegetate as well as Plants ; 

 it seems not impossible that these may be peculiar Stones, 

 which, though in the manner of their Growth they may 

 resemble Wood, and especially Holly, yet are not from that 

 Resemblance necessarily to be admitted such, any more than 

 those Representations of the Shells of Cockles, Oysters, and 

 Escalops, some forming and some formed, frequently observed 

 in Lime-stone in the Peak of Derbyshire, are to be supposed 

 ever to have been real Shells, or those exact Representations of 

 a Lion couchant, of a human Corps laid out ; nay, of several 

 artificial Things, as Chairs, a Set of Organs, and innumerable 

 other Sportings of Nature, in the vegetating Lime-stone, are 

 to be imagined to have ever been the real things they re- 

 semble.' " 



Many other such quaint quotations might be given, but no 

 solid ground of investigation is touched till the publication, in 

 1 75 1, of Dr. Barton's famous lecture to the Royal Society on 

 2he Petrifications^ Gems^ Crystals^ and Sanative Qualities of 

 Lough Neagh. The learned, but very wordy, Doctor quotes 

 all that had been previously written on the subject ; but his 

 strong point is original research, and the collection of an ex- 

 traordinary series of specimens which he describes in his work 

 most minutely. You will kindly excuse my inflicting a few of 

 his paragraphs upon you. 



