[Note 7: Accurate descriptions of those appearances, with drawings,
would be, to natural history, a valuable acquisition.]
All these examples would require to be examined upon the spot, as a
great part of the proof for the fusion of the flinty substance, arises,
in my opinion, from the form in which those bodies are found, and the
state of the surrounding parts. But there are specimens brought from
many different places, which contain, in themselves, the most evident
marks of this injection of the flinty substance in a fluid state. These
are pieces of fossil wood, penetrated with a siliceous substance, which
are brought from England, Germany, and Lochneagh in Ireland.
It appears from these specimens, that there has sometimes been a prior
penetration of the body of wood, either with irony matter, or calcareous
substance. Sometimes, again, which is the case with that of Lochneagh,
there does not seem to have been any penetration of those two
substances. The injected flint appears to have penetrated the body
of this wood, immersed at the bottom of the sea, under an immense
compression of water.
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