FOOD AND HAIR. 153 



The property of iron to preserve animal and vegetable substances is 

 sufficiently known. I have noticed instances of fragments of ships wrecked 

 upon the sea-shore, in which the wood surrounding the iron spikes was 

 preserved, while the rest had disappeared. A lady of my family picked 

 up, on the shore of Khode Island, a small mass of iron-colored substance, 

 which, on examination, proved to consist of an iron spike as the nucleus, 

 surrounded by a substance showing the fibres of woody texture, in which 

 were imbedded, in the most solid manner, a multitude of minute pebbles and 

 shells, forming a specimen entirely mineralized. 



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