APPENDIX. 
155 
Neagh in the county of Antrim are in the same way be¬ 
lieved by the Irish peasants to possess the property of con¬ 
verting wood to stone.* 
The facts in such cases are, that a succession of fresh 
pieces of silicified wood is found after storms exposed 
along the shores, being washed out of the banks that are 
continually wasting by the waves. The evidence before 
us then is such, that I believe no practical geologist will 
be disposed to assign the origin either of the wood or 
bones under consideration, to the comparatively impotent 
exertions of existing causes. The question reserved for 
him is, whether some of these remains may not also occur 
in the most recent tertiary strata, as well as in the diluvium 
of Asia :—the analogy of Europe would lead him to expect 
the same Mammalia in both ; we have however in the spe¬ 
cimens before us not one shell of any kind adhering to the 
bones, or in the agglutinated sand and gravel attached to 
them; and in Mr. Crawfurd’s notes, there is no evidence 
to show that any bones were found, except in the deposits 
of sand and gravel near Wetmasut, and these differ ma¬ 
terially from every specimen in his collection which we re¬ 
cognise as identical with the tertiary strata of our own 
country. 
It is of course impossible for any person who has not 
been on the spot, to decide with certainty on a question 
which requires so much minute local investigation by a 
very experienced observer. I shall therefore conclude with 
recapitulating the only three speculations that I conceive 
can be proposed, to explain with probability the date and 
origin of the bones before us. 
* The idea is probably alluded to in the cry, which is said to have 
been at one time common in Dublin : 
“ Lough Neagh ! buy my hones, 
Once were wood, and now are stones.’’ 
