282 NATURAL HISTORY 
toughnefs, and was become gritty, cutting fhort like chalk : it was 
hollow in the middle, the medullary pith being eaten out, and the 
fides of the hollow more corroded than the outfide. This intimates 
that there is fpar fufpended in the waters of our northern coaft 
which cemented thefe fands into ftone, though indeed in that ftone 
I can perceive no fhells, after examining them minutely in the mi- 
crofcope. On the fouthern coaft it is very probable that Falmouth 
Harbour (where there is fuch plenty of coral, a fubftance little dif- 
ferent from the nature of fpar) may afford us fome fpecimens of 
foffil-fhells ; for I have now before me a lump of fpar feven inches 
long, three inches and a half wide and deep, with limpets, pectun- 
cles, fea-eggs, whelkes, oyfters, mufcles, cockles, and fome tefta- 
ceous and coralline fragments mixed throughout in the body of the 
ftone ; all ffnall, except the mufcles, which were of feveral lizes : 
this lump was not fixed in any natural rock, but lay as a detached 
nodule on the ftrand near the mills betwixt Falmouth town and 
Pendinas caftle ; it may not therefore carry all the evidence that it 
would have done if found farther from the fea, and in a quiefcent 
firatum ; but it muft be acknowledged, that it could not come from 
far by reafon of the roughnefs of the furface ; and forafmuch as it 
contains no fhells or fragments but what are common to this harbour, 
it is moft likely to have been the product of the neighbouring cliffs. 
At the Par, near Fawy, there is a lime-ftone not very unlike the 
fubftance of a coarfe coral ; it is much eaten by the Pholades and 
fmall worms, with the fhells of feveral pipe-worms affixed, of a 
fubftance very little different from the ftone itfelf. This ftone 
makes a ftrong effervefcence with aqua forth ; and if there be not 
much fpar-ftone in this neighbourhood, moft probably thefe worm- 
eaten ftones have been imported from other parts for making lime, 
and being difperfed in the fands and fea, have been feized by the 
pholades of this coaft. 
CHAP. XXIV. 
Reptiles. 
sect. i. /\F reptiles, we have the adder or viper, ufually about two feet 
long) of which the icon may be feen Pi. xxvm. Fig. xxxm. p. 
276. Its bite is attended with immediate fwelling, and dangerous if 
fome remedy be not foon applied. Sallad-oil, taken internally, as well 
as externally rubbed on the wound, is reckoned a falutary method 
of proceeding ; but the firft thing to be done, fays Dr. Mead ', upon 
Of poifons, page 42. 
the 
