$ein=(!racrlantis Parities. 149 



I have heard a ftory of an Indian, that found a ftone, up in 

 the Country, by a great Pond as big as an Egg, that in a 

 dark Night would give a light to read by; but I take it to 

 be but a ftory. 



Diamond, which are very brittle, and therefore of little 

 worth. 



Cryftal, called by our Weft Country Men the Kenning 

 Stone ; by Sebegug Pond is found in conliderable quantity, 

 not far from thence is a Rock of Cryftal called the Moofe 

 Rock, becaufe in fhape like a Moofe, and 



Mufcovy Gla/s, both white and purple of reafonable 

 content. 



make tiles and bricks arul pavements for their necessary uses. For the country 

 it is well watered as any land under the sun ; every family, or every two families, 



having a spring of sweet water betwixt them ; which is far different from the wa- * 



ters of England, being not so sharp, but of a fatter substance, and of a more jetty 

 colour. . . . Those that drink it be as healthful, fresh, and lusty as they that 



drink beer." — Wood, Nevj-Eng. Prospefl, chap. v. "The humour and justness > 



of" this writer's " account recommend him," says the editor of 1764, " to every 

 candid mind." There is certainly no view of New England, as it was at its settle- 

 ment, that surpasses Wood's in understanding, and homeborn English truth, not 

 always without beauty. What he says in this place of" quarries of slate" points 

 to a very early discovery. Higginson says, in 1629 (New-Eng. Plantation, /. c, 

 p. 11S), "Here is plenty of slates at the Isle of Slate in Masathulets Bay:" 

 and there is a court order of July 2, 1633, granting " to Tho : Lambe, of slate in 

 Slate Ileajid, 10 poole towards the water-side, and 5 poole into the land, for three 

 yeares; payeing the yearely rent of ijs. vjd." — Mass. Col. Rec, vol. i. p. 106. 

 There are other later grants of the same island, which " lies between Bumkin 

 Island and Weymouth River." — Pemberton, Desc. Bost., Mass. Hist. Coll., vol. 

 iii. p. 297. Josselyn, in his Voyages, p. 46, says that tables of slate could be got 

 out (he does not tell us where), " long enough for a dozen men to sit at." Argil- 

 laceous slate is, according to Dr. Hitchcock, "the predominating rock on the . 

 outermost of these islands ; " and he adds, that " there can be but little doubt that 

 the peninsula of Boston has a foundation " of this rock. — - Report on Geol. of 

 Mass., p. 270. 



