the _Microscope_ been before that
engraven.

This _Petrify'd_ substance resembled Wood, in that

First, all the parts of it seem'd not at all _dislocated_, or alter'd from
their natural Position, whil'st they were Wood, but the whole piece
retain'd the exact shape of Wood, having many of the conspicuous pores of
wood still remaining pores, and shewing a manifest difference visible
enough between the grain of the Wood and that of the bark, especially when
any side of it was cut smooth and polite; for then it appear'd to have a
very lovely grain, like that of some curious close Wood.

Next (it resembled Wood) in that all the smaller and (if I may so call
those which are onely visible with a good magnifying Glass) _Microscopical_
pores of it appear (both when the substance is cut and polish'd
_transversly_ and _parallel_ to the pores of it) perfectly like the
_Microscopical_ pores of several kinds of Wood, especially like and equal
to those of several sorts of rotten Wood which I have since observ'd,
retaining both the shape, position and magnitude of such pores. It was
differing from Wood:

First; in _weight_, being to common water as 31/4 to 1. whereas there are
few of our _English_ Woods, that when very dry are found to be full as
heavie as water.

Secondly, in _hardness_, being very neer as hard as a Flint; and in some
places of it also resembling the grain of a Flint: and, like it, it would
very readily cut Glass, and would not without difficulty, especially in
some parts of it, be scratch'd by a black hard Flint: It would also as
readily strike fire against a Steel, or against a Flint, as any common
Flint.

Thirdly, in the _closeness_ of it, for though all the _Microscopical_ pores
of this _petrify'd_ substance were very conspicuous in one position, yet by
altering that position of the polish'd surface to the light, it was also
manifest, that those pores appear'd darker then the rest of the body, onely
because they were fill'd up with a more duskie substance, and not because
they were hollow.

Fourthly, in its _incombustibleness_, in that it would not burn in the
fire; nay, though I kept it a good while red-hot in the flame of a Lamp,
made very _intense_ by the blast of a small Pipe, and a large Charcoal, yet
it seem'd not at all to have diminish'd its extension; but only I found it
to have chang'd its colour, and to appear of a more dark and duskie brown
colour; nor could I perceive that those parts which s