OF SELBORNE. 
19 
shown pieces of fossil wood of a paler colour, and softer 
nature, which the inhabitants called fir : but upon a nice 
examination, and trial by fire^ I .could discover nothing 
PARTRIDGE. 
resinous in them ; and therefore rather suppose that they 
were parts of a willow or alder, or some such aquatic 
tree.^ 
drain had more than four feet depth of earth over it. It continued 
also to lie on thatch, tiles, and the tops of walls." See .Hales Ucema- 
statics, p. 360.-— Quere, Might not such observations be reduced to 
domestic use, by promoting the discovery of old obliterated drains and 
wells about houses ; and, in Roman stations and camps, lead to the 
finding of pavements, baths, and graves, and other hidden relics of 
curious antiquity ? — G. W, 
See also the letter to Daines Barrington, numbered I^XI. ; in which 
the effects of the short but intense frost of 1768 are described. — En. 
^ A more recent instance of the occurrence of bog-oak i« recorded 
in Letter LIX. to Daines Barrington : and probably ,the stock is by no 
means yet exhausted. In addition to the oak, fir and birch are also 
found. They are in various stages of carbonization, dependent on their 
position, or, in other words, on the length of time during which they 
have been subjected to the action of moisture and pressure. Above 
the peat is a layer of sand of eighteen inches or two feet in thickness. 
On the top of this rests a thick layer of turf ; consisting of the blended 
roots of many generations of heath and other plants, and approaching, 
in its lower part, to the character of the genuine bog. It is from this 
compact layer that the majority of the larger trunks are obtained. 
—Ed. 
