$: ACCOU'NT OF PETRIFACTIONS 



The jewellers prefer those fragments which, when broken from the 

 tree, appear m the interior of a brown and purple colour, occasionally 

 striped with grey or white veins. The more prevalent the purple or pinkj, 

 the more the stone is valued„ When polished and \^e\l sele61ed, it as- 

 sumes a great variety of colours, resembling most frequently agate, chang- 

 ing from a dark brown grey, to bright red with white veins. The red^ 

 when well chosen, might easily be taken for cornelians : it is generally 

 preferred for necklaces, when cut in flat circles, and set according to the 

 taste of the artist. The grey looks best in beads, and is used in tliat shape^ 

 for necklaces and bracelets, arranged in the usual way. 



On the western, or opposite side of the village, and within a quarter of 

 a mile/rom it, there is another hill much higher than those already des- 

 cribed. It is entirely covered with large blue granite stones, and tapers 

 into a bare pointed rock- In this hill there is no sign whatever of petri- 

 fa6tipn, and its aspe6l is quite opposite to that of the other range, 



' To return to these hills, I shall observe, that their surfaces present, every 

 where, with an elevation of about four inches above the surface of the 

 ground, a number of small protuberances; which answer much to the 

 description of the pudding stone, and which at first sight might betaken 

 for the work of the potter. Some persons have formed strange conjec- 

 tures on these appearances ; some taking them for the cups or sockets in 

 which the fruit of the Palmyra tree is retained, and which they suppose 

 has sustained some degree of petrifaction ; others fancying them to be the 

 decayed remnants of petrified branches. But it requires no great exami- 

 nation to perceive that these tubes (if I may so call them) extend deep 

 into. the earth. This may be seen where the side of the hill is abruptly 



