or Pine, which by some Earthquake, or other casualty, came to be buried
under the Earth, and was there, after a long time's residence (according to
the several natures of the encompassing adjacent parts) either rotted and
turn'd into a kind of Clay, or _petrify'd_ and turn'd into a kind of Stone,
or else had its pores fill'd with certain Mineral juices, which being
stay'd in them, and in tract of time coagulated, appear'd, upon cleaving
out, like small Metaline Wires, or else from some flames or scorching forms
that are the occasion oftentimes, and usually accompany Earthquakes, might
be blasted and turn'd into Coal, or else from certain _subterraneous_ fires
which are affirm'd by that Authour to abound much about those parts
(namely, in a Province of _Italy_, call'd _Umbria_, now the _Dutchie_ of
_Spoletto_, in the Territory of _Todi_, anciently call'd _Tudor_; and
between the two Villages of _Collesecco_ and _Rosaro_ not far distant from
the high-way leading to _Rome_, where it is found in greater quantity then
elsewhere) are by reason of their being encompassed with Earth, and so kept
close from the dissolving Air, charr'd and converted into Coal. It would be
too long a work to describe the several kinds of pores which I met withall,
and by this means discovered in several other Vegetable bodies; nor is it
my present design to expatiate upon Instances of the same kind, but rather
to give a Specimen of as many kinds as I have had opportunity as yet of
observing, reserving the prosecution and enlarging on particulars till a
more fit opportunity; and in prosecution of this design, I shall here add:

* * * * *

Observ. XVII. _Of _Petrify'd wood_, and other _Petrify'd bodies_._

Of this sort of substance, I observ'd several pieces of very differing
kinds, both for their outward shape, colour, grain, _texture_, hardness,
&c. some being brown and redish; others gray, like a Hone; others black,
and Flint-like: some soft, like a Slate or Whetstone, others as hard as a
Flint, and as brittle. That which I more particular examin'd, was a piece
about the bigness of a mans hand, which seem'd to have been a part of some
large tree, that by rottenness had been broken off from it before it began
to be _petrify'd_.

And indeed, all that I have yet seen, seem to have been rotten Wood before
the petrifaction was begun; and not long since, examining and viewing a
huge great _Oak_, that seem'd with meer