92 Mr. Barker’s Regijler of the 
Many walnut-trees were fplit from the collar to the root by 
the great froft in 1740, fo that a knife might be thruft in 
eight or ten inches ; the clefts clofed again in fummer, but 
never united. They grew out into a feam higher than the 
reft of the wood, and have fo continued ever fince, yet with- 
out hurt either to the growth or bearing of the trees, and 
feveral of them were again fplit by the late froft. Such feams 
may be feen on many walnut-trees where the caufe is not 
remembered. It feems odd, that clefts which did not affeft 
the growth of a tree ftiould yet never heal, but remain an inde- 
lible mark for fo long a time ; but it feems to me, that if 
wood is once parted, it will never join again, for the whole 
growth of a tree is between the bark and the wood ; but 
the cleft may be covered over with new wood, as we fome- 
times fee a branch broken oft' when the tree is young covered 
over with a great thicknefs of timber. I have known feveral 
alh trees fplit by lightning without a twig being killed ; but, 
in feveral years they flood afterward, there were no ftgns of 
their uniting again. In an oak, which had fome bark ftruck 
off by the fame means laft year, but is not fplit that I know 
of, fome of the lefler branches withered. 
One thing feems to have been more common this year than 
in 1740, and that was the lofs of ffth in ponds. Where 
the ponds were deep, well fupplied with water, and the ice 
unbroken, no filh died ; but where the water was fhallow, 
little or no current, and the ice kept broken, many perilhed ; 
and in 'fome places, where all thefe caufes concurred, they 
were all killed. The difference might arife from the want of 
water this year after a dry autumn, of which there was no defeft 
in 1739. Carp were taken out of a pond where the ice was 
broken, frozen crooked and ftiff' without the leaft motion, and 
ice 
