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ftands blowing rocks, that it is almoft impoffibie to come 
at the bottom of the fiflures of thefe in queftion. It could 
not be done but by gun-powder, ami then at a great ex» 
pence, and not without danger of deftroying much of 
the field above; befides, the force of the ]:)owder per- 
vading every hollow, would inevitably annihilate the- 
birds, and fo fruftrate the end of our labour. I conceived 
the idea of deftroying the rock in its full force, at the tiine- 
when the martins entered it, as I concluded, for their 
winter’s dormitory; and believe, that had the weather 
continued favourable, I fliould have a<ftually attempted it : 
but on refledtion it did not appear, that the cbfcovery 
would have been adequate to the difficulty and expence 
that would have attended it. For there is certainly no- 
thing more extraordinary in finding martins, in a ftate 
of torpidity, than dormice or bats, which are animals, 
equal in bulk to the fwallow or martiiu Dormice are 
frequently found dead to all appearance in the winter 
in old hedges ; and we can procure bats at all times, in 
any number, from a fubteiTaneous place, called Kent’s^ 
Hole, near Torbay. Now if tliC; examination of the iii- 
teftinal tube of one of this tribe of mungrel animals in 
a torpid flate, fiiould be thought worth attending to, it 
can be done at any timie>. - Bats, indeed, are fometimes 
feen in winter, in very mild w:eather;. though none have 
yet made their appearance with us. And^I am ready 
to attefi, if occafion fiiould require, that I have feen 
martins in Totnefs in the months of December and Ja- 
nuary : though I do not remember ever to have feen a 
fivallo\r 
