[ S5i ] 
clay in the neighbourhood, which has for many 
years been exported to Liverpool, and manufactured 
there into earthen ware ; but there is one now erected 
at Bovey. The depth of the ftrata is likewife much 
the fame ; for at Munden they have funk 50 feet, 
without coming to the bottom. The pieces, that 
form thefe ftrata, feem to lie much in the fame man- 
ner; they are comprelfed, without any intermixture 
of earth, full of cracks and fifliires, and lying fo clofe 
upon each other, that the profeflfor fays, “ it could 
ct not be difcovered, whether they were entire trees, 
<c or only parts of them,” and when taken out, they 
eafily fell to pieces. The German ftrata referable 
thofe of Bovey in colour. That of Allendorf, which 
Dr. Hollman calls bitumen, and which he diftin- 
guifhes from the foftil wood lying under it, is faid to 
be little inferior in blacknefs, fplendor, and hardnefs, 
to jet ; and he adds, that the foftil wood approaches 
very nearly to the fame colour. He obferves, indeed,, 
that the ftratum of Allendorf is not fo ftrongly im- 
pregnated with bitumen, and . therefore left by the 
workmen for future ages; and, no doubt, fome 
fpecies of this foftil have fo much earth, and fo little 
bitumen, that they are not at all, or only in a fmall 
degree, inflammable. I fkajl only obferve further, 
that the layer of ftone, which divides the two ftrata 
in the quarry of Munden, is a ftrong objection to the 
notion of their being foftil wood, properly fo called ; 
and that the vein of the ftratum at Allendorf, being 
taken in the adit of a* mine, could not give an oppor- 
tunity of examining the nature and difpofition of its 
parts, with the fame advantage, that we can view the 
ftrata at Bovey. 
I fhall 
