OfOXFO %T>^SHI %E. 55 
29. A curious pattern I have of this kind, in a piece of wood' 
given me by M'^ Pomfret School-mafter of Woodflock. (whofe care 
in my enquiries I muft not forget) wherein nature has been fo 
feafonably taken in her operation, that the method (lie ufes is ea- 
lily difcovered ; for being interrupted in the midfi: of her work, 
one may plainly fee how the ftony atoms have intruded themfelves, 
as well at the center 2iSfuferficies^ and fo equally too into all parts 
alike, that 'tis hard to difcern in any part of it, whether ftonc 
or wood obtain the better (liare. 
30. Petrifications xh\sk\nA2itt ^wiys friable^ and though 
fomtimes they faintly fliew the grain, yet never, that I could fee^, 
keep the coloUr.,of the wood ; in the fire they arfe as incombufiible 
as any other ftone, and lofe nothing of their ext'enfion, but their 
colour for the moft part feems to alter toward white : in diflil- 
led Vinegar they remain indiffoluble , though not without the 
motion (as HooJC well obferves) that the fame fpirit has when 
it corrodes Corals^ yielding many little bubbles, which in all pro- 
bability (as he fays) are nothing elfe but fmall parcels of Air dri- 
ven out of its fubftance by that infinuating Menfiruum^ it ftill re- 
taining the fame extenfion : but in aqua fortps^ the Sommerton 
cruft was wholly diffblved into a white fubftance, not unlike the 
xf>hite wafh ufed by PlaiHerers, All of thelii incteafe the bulk of 
the fubieS: on which they work ; and moft of them, as the inge- 
nious M"^ Hooh alfo further notes, feem to have been nothing 
more but rotten wood, before the petrification began* 
3 1 . But fome others I have fcen of a faf nobler kind, that 
iliew themfelves likely to be petrifications per minima^ and per-^ 
formed with a fteamfo fine, permeates the wcry fcbematifm and 
texture of the body, that even to a Microfcope feems moft folid, 
and muft in all likelyhood be as tenuiou^ as the fubtileft effluviums 
that come from a Magnet ; fome whereof are fo unlike rotten 
wood, that they keep the colour and texture of heart of Oak, and 
are fome of them fo hard that they cut Glafs : and with one of 
them, that feems formerly to have been a piece of GroUnd-aJh^ I 
ftrook fire to light the candle whereby I write this. But I have 
nothing more to fay of it here, becaufe I guefs the change not 
to have been wrought by watery that therefore I offer notvio-^ 
lence to the Chapter of Earths-, by which I think this, and all 
« Mieograj^h. Obf. 17. 
E 2 ' other 
/ 
