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leaves, acorns, pieces of wood, and even trunks of trees. This 
stratum affords very curious and beautifully varied petrifactions ; the 
moss, in particular, exhibits great varieties ; for it is evident, that the 
moss has continued to vegetate, after the roots and lower parts have 
been enveloped by the strong particles ; and thus having stretched 
itself to a considerable extent, it has, in some places, been mixed and 
interwoven with other substances. In some parts, snails have been 
arrested, in their sluggish walk, and locked up in the stony concrete. 
In others, the petrifying matter has shot in different directions, and 
formed an intricate kind of net-work. In others, again, there are 
large masses, which on being broken asunder, are found hollow, and 
their cavities ornamented with branches of petrifactions, somewhat 
resembling coral, but of a light grey colour, and generally of a rough 
and granulated surface. 
About four or five leagues from Tauris, in a plain called Roomy, 
there are several springs of water that petrify wood, and I have been 
informed, Mr. Bell says, even reptiles, such as lizards. One thing 
is certain, that, after a stagnation of this water, for a certain time, 
there is a substance like marble found at the bottom, which the 
Persians cut into any breadth, or length, at pleasure. I have seen 
them, he says, of two or three inches thick. It is easily polished, 
and is diaphanous, but not transparent. After sawing it into slabs, 
they fix them for windows, in their bagnios and private apartments*. 
Mons. de la Hiref states, that a river which passes by the city of 
Bakan, in the kingdom of Ava, has, for the space of ten leagues, 
the property of petrifying wood ; and that large trees have been 
seen, petrified to the top of the water, whilst the rest has remained 
in the state of dried wood. 
* A Journey to Ispahan, with an Embassy from his Imperial Majesty, Peter the First, 
to Kamhi, Emperor of China, in the year 1719, p. 82. 
t Mem. de I’Acaderaie des Sciences, tom. x. p. 140. 
