INTERESTING PETRIFACTIONS. 
for it existed in every stage of liardness. It was to be 
found all along the beacli in the shape of perfoetly-round 
balls of about the size of an orange, as well as in huge, 
shapeless fragments of rock. Some of these balls wore 
so soft as to flatten easily under the foot, like potters’ clay, 
while others were as hard as granite. These latter, if 
thrown forcibly against a largo rock, would rebound with 
the elasticity of a billiard-ball, or shatter into a dozen 
fragments ; and in the latter case they w'ere invariably 
found to contain petrified clams, oysters, various other 
marine shells, and the impressions of a great number of 
ferns and other plants, many of w'hich seemed no longer 
to grow' on the hill-sides : at least I could not find any. 
As for the shells of the clams and oysters, they were, 
generally speaking, perfect: they seemed to have become 
filled with earth, and then to have been gradually in- 
crusted with it until they were perfectly round. In those 
which flattened under the foot wm could seldom find 
shells, the half-decayed leaves and stems of plants being 
found to form most of their centres, around which, snow- 
hall-like, the outer coatings seemed to collect as ilwj rolled; 
but how it was that they were rolled, unless by the ebbing 
and flowing tide, w'C could never imagine. It wms sin- 
gular to break open some of these hard, cannon-like balls 
and find oysters and clams inside of them, while there 
was not at the time to be found living specimens w'ithin 
miles of the spot. In fiict, we never met with oysters 
along the whole coast. But the thing which surprised 
us most w'as the existence, in spots, of a greasy kind of 
clay, the like of which I had never before read of or seen. 
Walking along the beach, one w’ould put his foot on what 
