woo
tinue mining but a few minutes ; but a piece of Jl/inhig Wood, in the fame circumftances, will continue bright for /feveral days. 4. The coal, while it burns, fends forth fmokc and other exhalations ; the rotten Wood fends out none, and confequently a coal ail the while that it is mining waftes it- felf at a great rate ; but the rotten Wood does not wafte it- felf at all. And, finally, the burning coal is actually and vehemently hot j the .rotten Wood, though it mines, is not fo much as warm. Phil. Tranf. N°. 32. The light that is obferved to proceed from rotten Wood un- der fome particular circumftances, is found by experiment to require air to feed and keep it up : on putting a piece of this jhining Wood into an exhausted receiver, the light foon goes wholly off, and the Wood remains as dark as a piece of a common flick ; but immediately on letting in the air again the light is re-kindled, and a fudden flafh of lighten- ing feems to illuminate the Wood, and it continues bright as before.
In experiments of this kind, the effect of the air-pump is often much more ftrongly perceived a minute or two after it is worked, than during the time of the pumping ; and that very degree of exhauftion which leaves thefe luminous bodies fome light at firft, will by degrees deftroy it ; thus, if the pumping be flopped foon after the light begins to grow faint, and the body examined to find its changes afterwards, it will be feen to grow every minute more and more faint, till it wholly difappears.
The light of ihining flefh and fifh when putrifled, is wholly of the fame nature with that of rotten Wood, as to its depen- dence on the air for its fplendor ; and in the fame manner lofes its light in the exhaufted receiver, and .regains it on the admiflion of the air into it again, in the fame fudden manner. Phil. Tranf. N°. 31. iJ<7£-WooD, or Subterraneous Wood, a name given by the inhabitants of many parts of this kingdom to fuch Wood as is found buried in the earth in boggy places, and which is found hard and ftrong at this time. See the article Fefjile Wood, fupra.
We have in the Philofophical Tranfa&ions an account of vaft quantities of this fort of Wood found under ground in Hatfield chace. Infinite millions of the roots and bodies of trees are found there ; they are of all growths, and are moft- ly fuch trees as are the growth of our own foil, fuch as oaks, firs, birch, beech, yew, holly, willow, am, and the like. The roots of all thefe trees ftand in their natural po- iitions as when growing, and ftand as thick together as they could grow in a foreft. The bodies are ufually broken oft, and laid all along juft by them.
The large trees are ufually found fallen in a north-eaft di- rection, and the fmaller ones lying always ; the fir-tree or pitch-tree is more common than any other kind, and is found fometimes of twenty, thirty, and thirty-five yards long, and fo found and firm that many of them have been fold to make mafts for fhips. Oaks have been found of the fame length, though wanting fome yards of their natu- ral tops; thefe have been fold- at ten or fifteen pounds a- piece, and are as black as ebony, and very found and lair- ing in whatever fervice they are put to. The afh-trees do not prcferve their firmnefs in this manner, many of them are fo foft that the workman's fpade cuts through them ; and when expofed to the air, they ufually fall to pieces ; but the willows, though a much fofter wood than the afhes, preferve their texture, and are found very ftrong and firm. In fome of the fir-trees it is very obfervable, that they have (hot out fide-branches after they were fallen, which have grown into large trees. Many of thefe foffile trees appear plainly to have been burnt ; the fir-trees are particularly very common in this ftate ; and of thefe fome are burnt quite through, and others only on one fide. Some of thefe alfo have been found with the plain marks of human work upon them ; many with their branches chopt off, and their trunks cut into two or three pieces. Some fquared, and others in part cleft, and the vjooden wedges ufed in cleaving them are ftill found remaining in the cracks. Stones found in fome of them in the place of wooden wedges, but in none iron ones. The heads of axes are alfo fometimes found, they are of a ftrange form, and fomewhat reprefent the facrincing axes of the antients. Thefe are found at fuch depths, that it is impoffible they mould have ever been lodged there fince the time of this place's being a foreft ; nor ever could have been found, but by means of the ground's being drained by a late invention. The general opinion as to thefe trees is, that they were buried in this manner at the time of the univcrfal deluge ; but they are plainly of later origin, as foffils. The coins of fome of the Roman emperors having been found buried under them. Phil. Tranf. N°. 275. p 983.
The earth of bogs is not the only foil that prcferves thefe trees ; for in the low parts of Lincolnlhire between the towns of Burningham and JBrumley, there are feveral large hills compofed only of loofe fand, and as this blows away there are continually difcovered whole trees, or parts of trees, and particularly the roots and flumps of firs, and fome other kinds, all with the marks of the ax upon them, and looking Suppl. Vol. II,
WOO
as frefh as if done but yefterday. Under thefe hills and in the bogs before-mentioned, not only the Wood of the fir- tree, but its cones are found in immenfe number ; many buihels bang often laid in a heap together. In cuttine a dram for a river of a confiderable depth, there were found at the very bottom feveral parcels of cut Wood, in poles beams, and the like ; the head of an ax was alfo found fomewhat refembling the antient battle-ax, and a coin of the Roman emperor Vefpafian ; but what was yet more re- markable, was, that what they were now funk to feemed to be the original furface, the ground not being loofe like all above it, but found and firm, and lying in ridges and furrows, with the evident marks of having formerly been ploughed, bo that all the bog-earth above feems plainly to have"been added fince ; and that the foffile Wood, fuppofed of antedi- uvian origin, is but of the time of the antient Romans, or lefs than that.
All the bogs in this kingdom afford in like manner foffile- trees ; and not only thofe, but other places, have at all times accidentally difcovered them. Giraldus Cambrenfis tells us, that fo long fince as in king Henry the fecond's time, the fands on the (liores of Pembrokefhire were driven off by peculiar ftorms and tempefts, and that deep under thofe fands there were then difcovered great numbers of the roots and bodies of trees in their natural poftures ; and many of thefe had the ftrokes of the ax upon them, the marks at that time remaining as plain as when firft made, borne of thefe refembled ebony ; and many other fuch trees were difcovered at Neugall in the fame county, in the year 1590. Cambden tells us of fuch Wood found in the bogs in Somerfetihire, Chefhire, Lancafhire, Weftrnoreland, Yorkfhire, Staffordfhire, and Lincolnlhire ; and fince his time, many other counties have been found to be as fruit- ful in it. Dr. Plot mentions them in many parts of his hiftory of Staffordfhire, and by their Handing in their na- tural poftures, as to the roots atleaft; and prudently con- cludes, that they certainly once grew there, and were not brought from elfewhere.
Dr. Leigh, in his hiftory of Lancafhire, gives an account of the fame fort of trees found in the draining the boggy lands at Martin-Meer ; and prudently determines them not to have been of the antient date many pretend, in referring them to the deluge.
He obferves, that they are plainly of no older date than the time of the lavage inhabitants of England, about the time of the Roman conquefts ; for in this place, befide the roots and bodies of trees and their fruit, there were found eight canoes, or fmall boats, fuch as the wild inhabitants ufed at that time. And in another moor, in the fame county, a brafs kettle, with a fmall mill-ftone, and fome beads of wrought amber. In the fame place were alfo found feveral human bodies whole and entire, at leaft to outward ap- pearance, and the whole head of a hippopotamus or river- horfe. This is perhaps the hardeft thing to be accounted for of the whole fet, as to its coming there. The boggy places in Anglefea and the iile of Man, are all full of bu- ried trees of the fame kind ; and the bogs of Ireland a- bound no lefs with them.
England, and its adjacent iflands, are not the only places where this buried Wood is found ; for Verftegan tells us, that the moors in the Netherlands abound with them; they all lie North-eaft, as ours do. Helmont alfo mentions the Peel there, a morafs of eight or nine miles broad, which is full of them. The French naturalifts tell us of foffile trees alfo, in their country ; and in Swiflerland and Savoy ; but all in the low-grounds.
Ramazzini tells us, that in the territories of Modern, which are now a dry and fruitful country, yet in the time of the w Csfars were only a great lake, there are found at the depth of thirty, forty, and even fifty foot, the foil of a low marfhy country, with fedges, water-grafs, and other marfh- weeds ; and under this there lie the trunks of trees, and their roots ftand near them in a natural pofture as when growing. Many old coins of the Roman emperors are alfo found there ; as alfo feveral bulls, wrought marble, and fquared ftones, evidently fhewing the work of fuch tools as the Romans have been known to ufe. Some of the trees in thefe places ftand upright. Phil. Tranf. N>. 275. p. 986. Gilding on Wood. See the article Gilding on Wood. Woov-Coppices. In the firft raifing of Coppices two things are to be confidered ; firft, the nature of the foil, that fuch trees may be planted in it as will thrive well there ; and fecond- Iy, the ufes that the Wood is intended to be fold for, that fuch kinds may be planted as will be moft proper for thofe ufes.
If the principal vent for Wood be for the fire, the beft trees for Fire-wood muft be planted, fuch as the oak, beech, hornbeam or other hard woods. Thefe are the moft pro- fitable for felling as Fire-wood, and one or more of thefe will grow in any foil.
If there be a demand in the country where the Coppice is to be planted for hoops and hop-poles, then the alh, the chefnut, the oak, alder and hazel, are to be planted.
6 A According
