|!ebj;(!HntjlantJS Parities. 
149 
I have heard a ftory of an Indian, that found a ftone, up in 
the Country, by a great Pond as big as an Egg, that in a 
dark Night would give a light to read by; but I take it to 
be but a ftory. 
Diamond, which are very brittle, and therefore of little 
worth. 
Cryjlal, called by our Weft Country Men the Kenning 
Stone ; by Sebegug Pond is found in confiderable quantity, 
not far from thence is a Rock of Cryftal called the Moofe 
Rock, becaufe in fhape like a Moofe, and 
Mufcovy Glafs, both white and purple of reafonable 
content. 
make tiles and bricks and pavements for their necessary uses. For the country 
it is well watered as any land under the sun ; every family, or every two families, 
having a spring of sweet water betwixt them ; which is far different from the wa- 
ters of England, being not so sharp, but of a fatter substance, and of a more jetty 
colour. . . . Those that drink it be as healthful, fresh, and lusty as they that 
drink beer." — Wood, Ncw-Eng. Prospect, chap. v. "The humour and justness 
of" this writer's " account recommend him," says the editor of 1764, " to every 
candid mind." There is certainly no view of New England, as it was at its settle- 
ment, that surpasses Wood's in understanding, and homeborn English truth, not 
always without beauty. What he says in this place of" quarries of slate" points 
to a very early discovery. Higginson says, in 1629 (New-Eng. Plantation, /. c, 
p. 118), "Here is plenty of slates at the Isle of Slate in Masathulets Bay:" 
and there is a court order of July 2, 1633, granting " to Tho : Lambe, of slate in 
Slate Ileand, 10 poole towards the water-side, and 5 poole into the land, for three 
yeares ; payeing the yearely rent of ijs. vjd." — Mass. Col. Rcc, vol. i. p. 106. 
There are other later grants of the same island, which " lies between Bumkin 
Island and Wej'mouth River." — Pemberton, Dcsc. Bost., Mass. Hist. Coll., vol. 
iii. p. 297. Josselyn, in his Voyages, p. 46, says that tables of slate could be got 
out (he does not tell us where), " long enough for a dozen men to sit at." Argil- 
laceous slate is, according to Dr. Hitchcock, " the predominating rock on the 
outermost of these islands ; " and he adds, that " there can be but little doubt that 
the peninsula of Boston has a foundation" of this rock. — Report on Geol. of 
Mass., p. 270. 
