F O S 
F 0 S 
F O U 
70S 
the rampart consists of broken pieces of rock, 
which have the appearance of having been 
torn to pieces bv some extraordinary vio- 
lence. If the calcined compact wall exists 
under them, it is not at present visible.” 
In the Phil. Trans, of the Royal Society of 
London for 1777, part it. is an account of 
Creek Faterick, there termed a volcanic hill 
near Inverness, in which the writer does not 
hesitate to pronounce this hill an extinguished 
volcano : and, having sent specimens of the 
burnt matter for the inspection of the Royal 
Society, the secretary subjoins a note to the 
paper, intimating that the :e specimens, hav- 
ing been examined by some of the members 
well acquainted with volcanic productions, 
were by the n judged to be real lava. 
Mr. Tytler agrees with those who think the 
vitrified structures to be artificial Works ; 
but he differs from Mr. Williams and others 
who think that they were vitrified on purpose 
for cementing the materials together. His 
reason for this is, that the number of forts 
that show marks of vitrification is inconsider- 
able when compared with those that do not. 
He therefore considers the vitrification as ac- 
cidental, and describes the manner in which 
Re conceives it must have been accomplished. 
Among other observations in confirmation of 
his opinion, he urges, that in the fortification 
on Craig-Phadric, a large portion of the out- 
ward rampart bears no marks of vitrifications. 
Mr. Cordiner, on the otherhand, is of opinion 
that the vitrifications in question cannot have 
been the works of art, and ridicules the con- 
trary hypothesis, though without adducing 
any argument against it. 
Mr. Tyfler concludes his dissertation with 
a'conjecture, which indeed seems well sup- 
ported, that the forts in question were con- 
structed, not only before the Roman inva- 
sion, but before the introduction of the rites 
of the Druids into Britain; as “ there ap- 
pears no probability that the inhabitants either 
Jived under such a government as we know to 
liave prevailed under the influence of the 
Druids, or had any acquaintance with those 
arts which it is certain they cultivated.” On 
a view of the disputes which have agitated 
the learned on this obscure subject, we can 
only observe, that their arguments seem to 
liave placed it in a state of equiponderance, 
and tliat the fact remains open to the inves- 
tigation of future speculators. 
FOSS, in fortification, a hollow place, com- 
monly full of water, lying between the scarp 
and counterscarp, below the rampart; and 
turning round a fortified place or a post that is 
to be defended. 
FOSSA, in our antient customs, was used 
to signify a ditch full of water, wherein 
women, convicted of felon v, were drown- 
ed. 
Foss-way, one of the four principal high- 
ways of England, that antiently led through 
the kingdom ; supposed to be made by the 
Romans, having a ditch upon one side. 
FOSSARIF, in antiquity, a sort of officers 
in the Eastern church,' whose business it was 
to inter the dead. 
FOSSIL, in natural history, denotes in ge- 
neral all things dug out of the earth : whe- 
ther they be natives thereof, as metals, stones, 
salts, earths, and other minerals ; or extra- 
neous, reposited in the bowels of the earth 
by some extraordinary means, as earthquakes , 
tue deluge, &c. See Metal, Stone, &c. 
Native fossils, according to Dr. III!!, are 
substances found either buried in the 
earth, or lying on its surface, of a plain sim- 
ple structure, and shewing no signs of having 
contained vessels or circulating juices. These 
are subdivided by the same author, 1. Into 
fossils naturally and essentially simple. Of 
these some are neither inflammable, nor 
soluble in water; as simple earths, talcs, 
fi! music, gypsum, selenitic, crystals, and spars: 
others, though uninflammable, are soluble in 
water; as all the simple salts: and others, on 
the contrary, are inflammable, but not soluble 
in water; as sulphur, auripigm.ntum, zar- 
nich, amber, ambergris, gagates, asphaltum, 
ampelites, lithauthrax, naphtha, and pissas- 
phalta. 2. The second general subdivision 
of fossils comprehends all such as are natu- 
rally compound, but unmetallic. Of these 
some are neither inflammable, nor soluble in 
water ; as compound earths, stone-, septaria?, 
siderochita, semipellucid gems, &c. : others 
are soluble in water, but not inflammable ; 
as all the metallic salts : and, lastly, some 
-are inflammable, but not soluble in water; 
as the marcasites, pyritaq and phlogonia. 3. 
The third and last genera! division of fossils 
comprehends all the metallic ores; which are 
bodies naturally hard, remarkably heavy, and 
fusible in lire. Of these some are perfectly 
metallic, as being malleable when pure ; such 
are gold, lead, silver, copper, iron, and tin: 
others are imperfectly metallic, as not being 
malleable even in their purest state ; such 
are antimony, bismuth, cobalt, zinc, &c. Of 
all the substances these reader will find a par- 
ticular description under their respective 
heads. 
Extraneous fossils are bodies of the vege- 
table or animal kingdoms accidentally buried 
in the earth. Of the vegetable kingdom 
there are principally three kinds, trees or 
parts of them, herbaceous plants, and corals ; 
and of the animal kingdom there are four 
kinds, sea-shells, the teeth or bony palates 
and bones of fishes, complete fishes, and the 
bones of land-animals. See Bones, Tree, 
Wood, Plant, Shell, &c. These adven- 
titious or extraneous fossils, thus found buried 
in great abundance in divers parts of the earth, 
have employed the curiosity of several of our 
latest naturalists, who have each a different 
system to account for the surprizing appear- 
ances of petrified sea-fishes, in places far re- 
mote from the sea, and on the tops of moun- 
tains ; shells in the middle of quarries of stone ; 
and of elephants’ teeth, and bones of various 
animals, peculiar to the southern climates, and 
plants only growing in the East, found fossil 
in our northern and western parts. 
Some will have thoje shells, &c. to be real 
stones, and stone plants, formed after the 
usual manner of other figured stones ; of which 
opinion is the learned Dr. Lister. Another 
opinion is, that these fossil shells, with all their 
foreign bodies found within the earth, as bones, 
trees, plants, &c. were buried therein at the 
time of the universal deluge ; and that, having 
been penetrated by the calcareous or siliceous 
matter abounding chiefly in watery places, 
and then in a state of solution they have been 
preserved entire, and sometimes petrified. 
Others think, that those shells, found at the 
tops of the: highest mountains, could never 
have been carried thither by the waters, even 
of the Deluge ; inasmuch as most of these 
aquatic animals, on account of the weight of 
their shells, always remain at the bottom of 
the water, and never move but close along the 
ground. They imagine, that a year’s conti- 
nuance of the waters of the Deluge, inter- 
mixed with the salt waters of the sea, upon 
the surface of the earth, might well give oc- 
casion to the. production of shells of various 
kinds in different climates ; and that the uni- 
versal saltness of the water was the real cause 
of their resemblance to the sea-shells, as the 
lakes formed daily by the retention of rain or 
spring water produce different kinds. Others 
think,, .that the waters of the sea and the ri- 
vers, with those which fell from heaven, turn- 
ed the whole surface of the earth upside 
down ; after the same manner as the waters 
of the Loire, and other rivers, which. roll in a 
sandy bottom, overturn all their sands, and 
even the earth itself, in their swellings and 
inundations ; and that in this general sub- 
version,- the shells came to be interred here, 
fishes there, trees in another place, &c. 
Dr. Woodward, in his Natural History of 
the Earth, pursuing and improving the 'hy- 
pothesis of Dr. Burnet, maintains the whole 
mass of earth, with every thing belonging 
to, it, to have been so broken and dissol- 
ved at the time of the Deluge, that a new 
earth was then formed on the bosom of the 
water, consisting of different strata, or beds 
of terrestrial matter, ranged over each other 
usually according to the order of their specific 
gravities. By this means plants, animals, 
and especially fishes and shells, not yet dis- 
solved among the rest, remained mixed and 
blended among the mineral and fossil mat- 
ters ; which preserved them, or at least as- 
sumed and retained their figures and impres- 
sions either indentedly, or in relievo. 
FOT11ER, or fodder, in mining. See 
Fodder. 
FOTIIERGILLA, a genus of the poly- 
andria and digynia class- and order. Tire 
calyx is an ament ovate ; scales one-flowered ; 
corolla calyx-form, one-petalled, live-cleft. 
There is one species, a tree of Caroline resem- 
bling the alder. 
FOUL, in the sea-language, is used when 
a ship has been long untrinnned, so that the 
grass, weeds, or barnacles, grow to her sides 
under water. A rope is also foul when it is 
either tangled in itself, or hindered by an- 
other, so that it cannot run, or be over- 
hawled. 
Foul imports, also, the running of one 
ship against another. This happens some- 
times by the violence of the wind, and some- 
times by the carelessness of the people on 
board, to ships in the same convoy, and to 
ships in port by means of others coming in. 
The damages occasioned by running foul, 
are of the nature of those in which both par- 
ties must bear a part. They are usually made 
half to fall upon the sufferer, and half upon the 
vessel which did the injury: but in cases 
where it is evidently the fault of the mas- 
ter of the vessel, he alone is to bear the da- 
mage. 
Foul-water. A ship is said to make 
foul-water, when being under sail, she comes 
into such shoal-water, that though he‘f keel 
does not touch the ground, yet it comes so near 
it, that the motion of water under her raises 
tire mud from the bottom. 
FOUNDATION, in architecture, is that 
