[ 54 ° ] 
its form and properties, will prove it to be not of a 
vegetable, but of a mineral origin. 
In the firft place, there does not feem to be any 
imaginable caufe in nature, which could bring toge- 
ther fuch a mafs of foffil wood, as is found in this, 
and other ftrata of the like kind in different parts of 
Europe. It extends here to the depth of 70 feet : 
in that near Munden they have funk yo feet, with- 
out coming to the bottom. Foffil trees, though fre- 
quently found fingle, or in fmall numbers, are ge- 
nerally difcovered in moraffes and foft ground, where 
they have either buried themfelves by their own 
weight, or been overwhelmed by fome accidental 
caufe : but the Bovey ftrata are found in a dry foil, 
intermixed with clay and fand, and, by their regular 
courfe and continuance, carry the moft undoubted 
marks of never having been difturbed fince their ori- 
ginal formation. Foffil trees likewife preferve their 
form and fize, their length and roundnefs, their 
branches and roots, their fibrous texture and ftrength, 
and are either found entire, or in fuch large pieces, 
that there is no room to doubt of their nature, fince 
the very fpecies of wood is frequently dilfinguifhable 
in them ; whereas the Bovey coal comes out only in 
flat pieces, of a few feet long, like the fplinters of 
large mails ; and on them we difcover no figns of 
roots, branches, or bark, no round pieces, or con- 
centric circles, which diflinguifh the annual growth 
of trees ; the laminae, which have the appearance of 
wood, being always horizontal, according to the fi- 
tuation of the pieces in the ftrata : or could we fup- 
pofe a number of foffil trees to be brought together, 
and ranged in this regular manner in the fevcral 
ftrata., 
