. But Messrs. Wall and
Sawkins say that they observed no such motion; nor did we: and I
agree with them, that it is not very obvious to what force, or what
influence, it could be attributable. We must, therefore, seek for
some other way of accounting for the sticks--which utterly puzzled
us, and which Mr. Manross well describes as 'numerous pieces of wood
which, being involved in the pitch, are constantly coming to the
surface. They are often several feet in length, and five or six
inches in diameter. On caching the surface they generally assume an
upright position, one end being detained in the pitch, while the
other is elevated by the lifting of the middle. They may be seen at
frequent intervals over the lake, standing up to the height of two
or even three feet. They look like stumps of trees protruding
through the pitch; but their parvenu character is curiously betrayed
by a ragged cap of pitch which invariably covers the top, and hangs
down like hounds' ears on either side.'

Whence do they come? Have they been blown on to the lake, or left
behind by man? or are they fossil trees, integral parts of the
vegetable stratum below which is continually rolling upward? or are
they of both kinds? I do not know. Only this is certain, as
Messrs. Wall and Sawkins have pointed out, that not only 'the purer
varieties of asphalt, such as approach or are identical with asphalt
glance, have been observed' (though not, I think, in the lake
itself) 'in isolated masses, where there was little doubt of their
proceeding from ligneous substances of larger dimensions, such as
roots and pieces of trunks and branches;' but moreover, that 'it is
also necessary to admit a species of conversion by contact; since
pieces of wood included accidentally in the asphalt, for example, by
dropping from overhanging vegetation, are often found partially
transformed into the material.' This is a statement which we
verified again and again; as we did the one which follows, namely,
that the hollow bubbles which abound on the surface of the pitch
'generally contain traces of the lighter portions of vegetation,'
and 'are manifestly derived from leaves, etc., which are blown about
the lake by the wind, and are covered with asphalt, and as they
become asphalt themselves, give off gases, which form bubbles round
them.'

But how is it that those logs stand up out of the asphalt, with
asphalt caps and hounds' ears