50 
When he had a little recovered himself, he requested Mr. Inman 
to inform him, what kind of substance this was. “ It is,” said Mr. 
Inman, ‘‘ a species of fossil wood, which we, sometimes, find on 
digging in different parts of this mountain.” “ Wood !” exclaimed 
Winton, turning round, and depositing the parcel in my hands for 
my examination, ‘‘ why really it is as hard and heavy as any stone 
I ever felt!” “By fossil wood,” said Mr. Inman, “I mean that 
which was once wood, but which is now become stone.” A closer 
examination now showed me, that this substance was more truly 
curious, than it had even appeared to be on a superficial view ; since 
I discovered, that its resemblance to wood consisted, not merely in 
its general external appearance, but that this similitude was disco- 
verable, in its internal structure : the knots, the concentric lamina, 
and even the smallest fibres of the wood, being perceptible. Per- 
ceiving our attention to be so much engrossed by this curious sub- 
stance, which appeared to us of such an ambiguous nature, Mr. 
Inman remarked, that as the evening was too far advanced to allow 
any excursion on the mountain, he would endeavour to amuse us 
with a little cabinet, containing some curious smaller specimens of 
a similar kind ; some of which he had acquired during his travels 
on the continent. We soon surrounded the table, on which he, in 
turn, placed several drawers, containing a considerable number of 
beautiful and interesting specimens, of what, according to the sug- 
gestions in your obliging letters of instruction, we should name, 
vegetable fossils. Not only did I never before view a collection 
so interesting, but I never had even conceived that there could 
exist in bodies of this kind, so much beauty ; or that substances, 
indubitably of a mineral nature, could possess, so distinctly, the 
characteristic forms of vegetables. 
One specimen, which, as it lay in the drawer, was not to be dis- 
tinguished from a well smoothed piece of common deal, possessed 
so great a degree of hardness, that on being struck against a piece 
