. C 1^70 ) 
time turns into Stone \ There they way he fcen^ fome that are 
new fallen as foft as the Clay in the Cliff, and others that have 
lain there longer crufied over and hard^ but if opened cr 
hroke. the Clay flill joft in the middle 5 others that hove 
lain longefl petr/Jicd- to the very heart , an^ with tbtje 
the W'silh of the Town are for the fnofl part built ^ and the 
Sut^t^ generally are pitch d. How far this is matter ot -fad 
1 will not determiac, my flay at Harwich hting always 
.toofbort iot me to make obfervations fo critical as this 
Ph£nomenon doth defcrve 5 and altjio.l muft at the fame 
time own that many of the Stones are wafhed out from the 
Stratum at the bottom of the Cliff, yet I have fometimes 
been inclined to Mr Taylers opinion, becaufe he lived 
long upon the Spot, being Store- keeper of tile Kings 
Building yard for many years, and by his CoUeBions^ d^r. 
leems to be a perfon of Probity and Learning : and alfo 
becaufe divers of th^faid Stones have cracks or chops in 
them, as Clay and Earth will have by Toeing expofed^to 
the Sun3 and there is yet [^Anno 1702, ^ lying upon that 
Shoar a Stone, in which a large pile (perhaps of Oak) 
fuch as was formerly made^ife of there to preferve the 
Cliff from the injuries of the Sea, doth evidently appear 
to be imbedded 5 which can owe its fituation to no other 
Original, than by being prcft into the fuperficies of the 
Clay while foft, and petrifying vvith it, M^hich being 
.fquare, takes off an objeftion which (bme might make 
had it been round, of its being lodged there in the ge- 
neral Deluge. 
lam not infenfible that this manner of Petrification is 
not only different from the common methods Nature 
nfeth in that operation, but alfo thwarts the opinions 
©f divers Learned and Ingenious men, and it was ftrenu- 
cufly oppos'd by the Reverend Mr John Morton ot Oxen- 
don in Northamptonjhire 3 vdien we, together with Mr 
John Luffkin^ zn Apothecary of Colchejier^ were upon the 
place 5 the fubftance of which difcourfe he wrote down, 
and afterwards at my requeft fent me, together with his 
thoughts 
