of the P y R ites. -8i 



:ery, mock-leady matter was not only manifeftly 

 weathered, but lodged in its rents. This fample, 

 which was found in 1658 in an old mine at 

 Schwartz in Tyrol, manifeftly mews, it was not 

 only a real unpetrified wood, but alfo the ore jo 

 clofely adhering to it, as to exclude the leaft fufpi- 

 cion of a cheat or impoitnre. And this has led me 

 to enquire farther after fuch famples ; at leaft, whe- 

 ther ore may not- fome times have been found on .bo- 

 dies, tho' of an extraneous kingdom, yet approach- 

 ing nearer the nature of ftone than wood does \ 

 as for inftance, on periwinkles, mufcles and the 

 like fhells, unchanged, unpetrified ; though that 

 fuch parts are alio petrified is evident from the fof- 

 fUs of Boil in the territory of Wirtemberg. And 

 I have feen the mufcle-work of Wicrau in Ofter- 

 land, on the Orla, a mile from Neuftadt, fluffed 

 with fand-ftone, in which lead-glitter was implanted 

 deep into the fhell, but ftill diftinguifliable and fepa- 

 rable from the adhering fand-ftone ; tho' I confidered 

 it rather in a petrified than in a native or animal ftate. 

 But we experience this ftill more in wood petrified, 

 or reduced at leaft to ftone-coal \ M. Mylius, a- 

 mong others, infills upon having feen famples of 

 that kind, filled with marcafite, from the Fifch- 

 bach in the territory of Henneberg ; and pieces of 

 wood, reduced to marcafite, have been found at 

 Leipfick and Bitterfeld, in digging for wells*. 

 Yet fuch inftances, where pieces of fhell or wood 

 are become real ftone, are immaterial, however 

 extraordinary, in other refpects, it might be 

 to find lead- ore, near fuch foffils, as it would be 

 no lefs fo to find lead-ore in fand-ftone. And 

 tho' there were no famples of the pyrites, or any 

 other ore to be fhewn on the unchanged remains 

 of the deluge, yet fuch might not come to the 

 day •, of which the above fample of wood, overlaid 



G with 



* Saxon fjbt<*r P I P . 6j. 



