4-- ■ ACCOUN'T' OF PETRIFACTIONS 



'TrnKtimMMr of p€trifa6i:ions, wMcli-' are -ito.'^bs- -seen, irl every diredmn^. 

 ill tli¥ Bf dkeii gromid- (about fifteen or twenty) is too 'great to admit a;, 

 niiiiiite; description' of every" subje 61. ' The' fragments of one particular 

 trecj fiowever, attra6i:ed sufficiently rily noticGj-tO' induce^ me' to give some; 

 account of it at tM's plade : I say of a tree, because dthougli the parts that. 

 remaiil are very remote from one another, yet tlie natives' affirm, that 

 they -did belong ta the same' individuaL ;' ' ' ■ -'■;.■ 



The middle part of the trunk seems to have been detached from the 

 extreittities, by a water-course or deep' rut^ which forming under it, d.e- 

 pi'ived its- centre of support: and ai3 all these trees -are generally hrokett; 

 across, at intervals of three, and four feet,- (as would .be the casey were, a-, 

 long stone pillar to be let fall suddenly on its side ) it followed, that when 

 these divisions lost their support, they rolled off, or fell down ; and if of a 

 good texture and colour, they may have been carried away by the stone- 

 cutters,. One of these fragments lies a little on one side, and below the 

 upper part of the tree; but the top and the root, which were most firmly 

 fixed into the ground, kept fast in their place. These pieces lie evidently 

 Hi the same J or in parallel lines. - ^ . , 



Measuring from whence the top is inserted into the stratum, down to 

 the extremity of the root, it was sixty feet In length ; its diameter at the 

 upper insertion was two feet, at the piece fallen down, three feet. At 

 the bottom of the trunk, four and half feet, and at the root, at its broadest 

 place^ about eight, or nine feet; a prodigious size, if these fragments really 

 once did belong to the same tree. 



Another curious appearance was that of a tree, about thirty feet long, 

 which traversed the summit of one of the hillocks^ m an oblique diredion ; 



