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was of opinion, that he was able to prove that it was not of a vege- 
table, but of a mineral origin. 
The observations on which he founded this opinion, will require, 
however, here to be mentioned only in a cursory manner. His first 
objection is derived from its quantity ; since it extends here to the 
depth of seventy feet, and in that of Munden, as we have seen, 
they had bore4 to the depth of fifty feet, without discovering its 
bottom ; he thinking, that there could have been no imaginable 
cause in nature, which could bring together such a mass of fossil 
wood, as is found in this and similar strata. 
Fossil trees, he remarks, are generally discovered in morasses and 
soft ground ; where they have either buried themselves by their own 
weight, or been overwhelmed by some accidental cause : but the 
Bovey Coal is found in a dry soil, intermixed with clay and sand, 
and, by its regular course and continuance, he thinks, carries the 
most undoubted marks of never having been disturbed since its 
original formation. Fossil trees, he likewise observes, preserve their 
form and size, their length and roundness, their branches and roots, 
their fibrous texture and strength ; and are either found entire, or 
in such large pieces, that there is no room to doubt of their nature ; 
since the very species of wood is frequently distinguishable : whereas 
the Bovey Coal comes out only in flat pieces of a few feet long, like 
the splinters of large masts ; and on them we discover no signs of 
roots, branches, or bark ; no round pieces, nor concentric circles, 
which distinguish the annual growth of trees ; the laminee, which 
have the appearance of wood, being always horizontal, according 
to the situation of the pieces in the strata. Again, he observes, if the 
basis or matrix of this fossil were wood, it would acquire, by being 
impregnated with bitumen, a greater degree of inflammability ; 
whereas it neither kindles, nor consumes so fast as wood. 
The inflammability, and laminated texture, of this fossil, which 
have been the circumstances leading to the supposition of its being 
VOL. I. Q 
