the Country, and that in feveral parts they were heard 
as loud as Guns, fome having been cruelly affrighted, 
efpecially in the Evenings or Nights as they have pafled 
within the hearing ofthis lo unexpecSted andlurprizing 
a noife. Which rifts or clefts were ("as in anfwer to the 
third Querie ) not only to the fame point of the Com^ 
pafs, but fometimes on one fide only, lometimes2 and 
fometimes j and lometimes 4 feveral places, dividing 
or quartering the Tree, and fometimes quite through 
{ as the eighth Querie feems to examine: ) and thefe clefts 
not only in the bodies, but continued into the larger 
boughs and limbs of the Tree, in anfwer to the forth Que- 
rie, and fometimes defcended into the fiperfcial roots ^ 
anlwering to the loth Querie, but not to thofe very deep 
in the Earth, the Froft though extream, not reaching 
confiderably deep comparatively to the roots of Trees, 
and the hard binding of the Earth being fo frozen would 
not eafily admit ot compreffure, but feveral fhallow 
roots fo knotted and knurled not to be wrought upon 
with betle and wedges^ are known to be cleft by thtfrojl : 
But it is much to be doubted and fufpedled whether any 
fuch cloven trees were fo perfectly found and faithful 
Timber, if proved by the &n7 and Axe, as they ought 
to be; foriffo, all might equally fuffer, the ^/r having 
impartial accefs to one as well as the other, but fome be- 
ing taken with this difeaje and other left untouch't, there 
certainly was fome caufe or defedt in thefe liable to it, 
tather then the reft. What it was that might give occafi- 
on to fome only, might prove a matter worthy of en- 
quiry. A great part of the caufe is fuppofed to be im* 
perfeSlion in fuch a Tree, and that generally from the 
too large Jap-vejpls and unnatural cavities therein, 
which fome call Windjbaken^ and fome Lag d- trees, the 
caufe whereof remains yet to be examined, whether 
thefhakingof the Wind may not, with its great weight 
andforcc; taking the whole Tree with its boughs limbs 
and 
