C 309 3 
** think them deceived 5 for they made no Experiment 
u on that Part which they reputed Wood. The Bark 
u is never found petrified, as I am informed by a 
u diligent Inquirer 5 but often fomething rotten about 
“ the Stone, anfwerable to the Bark/' 
Mr. Smyth I think contradifts himfelf no lefs in 
his laft Suppofition than he did in the firft. His 
Friends allured him, that they had feen one or more 
of the Lough-neagh Stones partly Wood and partly 
Stone j but they were deceived, he fays : The Diver- 
fity of Colours, by which they judged one Part of the 
Stone by its Colour to be Wood, and the other 
Part likewife, by its Colour different from the other, 
to be Stone, were no more than different Degrees of 
Petrification. What are we to underftand by thefe 
different Degrees of Petrification * by this fomething 
rotten about the Stone often found } if not, that 
fome Part of the Wood was a&ually turned into 
Stone, fome other Part in a Degree lefs petrified, and 
fome other Part not petrified at all, as thefe 
Gentlemen affined him : The Diverfity of Colours, 
Seeing and Feeling, was enough to convince them, 
and to determine the Point. 
As to his Affertion, That, becaufe the Water of 
this Lake has not every-where, and in every Place, 
that petrefeent Virtue, it muft therefore be a good 
Reafon to doubt of its having that peculiar Quality 
in fome particular Places, I think it may be denied 
for thefe Reafons; ift. Becaufe a Spring, tho' ever 
fo much impregnated with petrific, mineral, or me- 
talline Particles, iffiiing out in fome particular Place 
of the Lake, can no more communicate its petrifying 
Virtue to the Waters of the whole Lake, than the 
River 
