THE PLESTOR-LARGE OAKS.

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the amazing tempest in 1703 overturned it at once, to the infinite regret of the inhabitants, and the vicar, who bestowed several pounds in setting it in its place again; but all his care could not avail; the tree sprouted for a time, then withered and died. * This oak I mention, to shew to what a bulk planted oaks also may arrive; and planted this tree must certainly have been, as appears from what is known concerning the antiquities of the village.t

On the Blackmoor estate there is a small wood, called Losel's, of a few acres, that was lately furnished with a set of oaks of a peculiar growth and great value: they were tall and taper like firs, but, standing near together, had very small heads - only

* It is very probable that this great oak was planted, in the year 1271, by the prior mentioned in the preceding note; so that it must have been four hundred and thirty-two years old when blown down. ED.

The Shire Oak, so named from its peculiar local situation, standing on a spot where the counties of Derby, Nottingham, and York join, is one of the largest in the kingdom. The area which it covers is seven hundred and seven square yards. In February, 1828, an ash tree was felled in Blackburn Hollows, near Shires Green, Yorkshire, containing seven hundred and fifty feet of solid timber: it was ten feet six inches across the stool. An oak was also felled in Shining Cliff, near Crich, Derbyshire, containing nine hundred and sixty-five feet, and was thirteen feet four inches across the stool. One of the most gigantic and venerable trees of this species is the celebrated Cowthorpe Oak, which stands on the extremity of the village of that name, near Wetherby, county of York. The late Dr Hunter, while describing an oak of extraordinary size, which decorates Sheffield Park, notices this majestic production of nature, in his edition of Evelyn's Sylva, in the following terms: — "Neither this, nor any of the oaks mentioned by Mr Evelyn, bears any proportion to one now growing at Cowthorpe. The dimensions are almost incredible. Within three feet of the ground it measures sixteen yards, and close to the ground twenty-six yards. Its height, in its present ruinous state, (1776,) is almost eighty-five feet, and its principal limb extends sixteen yards from the bole. Throughout the whole tree the foliage is extremely thin; so that the anatomy of the ancient branches may be distinctly seen in the height of summer. When compared to this, all other trees are but children of the forest."-Book iii. p. 500.

The description here given answers as nearly as possible to the present condition of the tree, as may be seen by comparing it with the accompanying cut. The common oak is the quercus robur of botanists.

The girth of our largest forest trees sinks into comparative insignificance, when contrasted with that of some which are to be met with in the equinoctial regions of America. Mr Exter, in 1827, measured a cypress tree in the churchyard of Santa Maria de Tesla, two leagues and a half west of Oaxaca, whose trunk was one hundred and twenty-seven English feet in circumference, and one hundred and twenty feet in height. It appeared in the prime of its growth, and had not a single dead branch. .ED.

a little brush, without any large limbs. About twenty years ago the bridge at the Toy, near Hampton Court, being much decayed, some trees were wanted for the repairs that were fifty feet long without bough, and would measure twelve inches diameter at the little end. Twenty such trees did a purveyor find in this little wood, with this advantage, that many of them answered the description at sixty feet. These trees were sold for twenty pounds a-piece.*

In the centre of this grove there stood an oak, which, though shapely and tall on the whole, bulged out into a large excrescence about the middle of the stem. On this a pair of ravens had fixed their residence for such a series of years, that the oak was distinguished by the title of the Raven Tree. Many were the attempts of the neighbouring youths to get at this eyry: the difficulty whetted their inclinations, and each was ambitious of surmounting the arduous task. But when they arrived at the swelling, it jutted out so in their way, and was so far beyond their grasp, that the most daring lads were awed, and acknowledged the undertaking to be too hazardous. So the ravens built on, nest upon nest, in perfect security, till the fatal day arrived in which the wood was to be levelled. It was in the month of February, when those birds usually sit. The saw was applied to the but, the wedges were inserted into the opening, the woods echoed to the heavy blows of the beetle, or mallet, the tree nodded to its fall; but still the dam sat on. At last, when it gave way, the bird was flung from her nest; and, though her parental affection deserved a better fate, was whipped down by the twigs, which brought her dead to the ground.t

*In the hall of Dudly Castle there is an oak table, seventy-five feet long, and three feet broad, which grew in the park of that estate. -En.

During the time of incubation, the natural timidity of birds is greatly lessened; and, in many instances, the females will allow themselves to be taken rather than desert their nests. The following instance, recorded by William Henry Hill, Esq. of Newland, Gloucestershire, in 1828, finely illustrates this: He says, "Some time since, a pair of blue titmice (parus cæruleus) built their nest in the upper part of an old pump, fixing on the pin on which the handle worked. It happened that, during the time of building, and laying the eggs, the pump had not been in use; when again set going, the female was sitting, and it was naturally expected the motion of the pump-handle would drive her away. The young brood were hatched safely, however, without any other misfortune than the loss of part of the tail of the sitting bird, which was rubbed off by the friction of the pump-handle; nor did they appear disturbed by the visitors who were frequently looking at her."-Magazine of Natural History, i. p. 64.

FOSSIL SHELLS.

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LETTER III.

TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ.

THE fossil shells of this district, and sorts of stone, such as have fallen within my observation, must not be passed over in silence. And first, I must mention, as a great curiosity, a specimen that was ploughed up in the chalky fields, near the side of the Down, and given to me for the singularity of its appearance, which, to an incurious eye, seems like a petrified fish, of about four inches long, the cardo passing for a head and mouth. It is in reality a bivalve of the Linnæan genus of mytilus and the species of crista galli; called by Lister, rastellum; by Rumphius, ostreum plicatum minus; by D'Argenville, auris porci, crista galli; and by those who make collections, cock's comb.* Though I applied to several such in London, I never could meet with an entire specimen; nor could I ever find in books any engraving from a perfect one. In the superb museum at Leicester House, permission was given me to examine for this article; and, though I was disappointed as to the fossil, I was highly gratified with the sight of several of the shells themselves, in high preservation. This bivalve is only known to inhabit the Indian Ocean, where it fixes itself to a zoophyte, known by the name gorgonia.

Cornua ammonis are very common about this village. As we were cutting an inclining path up the Hanger, the labourers found them frequently on that steep, just under the soil, in the chalk, and of a considerable size. In the lane above Wellhead, in the way to Emshot, they abound in the bank in a darkish sort of marl; and are usually very small and soft; but in Clay's Pond, a little farther on, at the end of the pit, where the soil is dug out for manure, I have occasionally observed them of large dimensions, perhaps fourteen or sixteen inches

* Ostrea carinata, or keeled oyster, of Lamark. It is met with in the department of Sarthe, and other places of France. The author is mistaken in supposing that this species is found in a recent state. It has been satisfactorily proved, that there are no living species of those fossil shells discovered in the old limestone formations, although there are some existing individuals nearly allied to them.

Petrifactions occur in three states; sometimes they are a little altered, sometimes they are converted into stone, and at other times the impressions only of them, or the moulds in which they have been enclosed, remain. - ED.

in diameter. But as these did not consist of firm stone, but were formed of a kind of terra lapidosa, or hardened clay, as soon as they were exposed to the rains and frost, they mouldered away. These seemed as if they were a very recent production. In the chalk-pit, at the north-west end of the Hanger, large nautili are sometimes observed.*

In the very thickest strata of our freestone, and at considerable depths, well-diggers often find large scallops, or pectines, having both shells deeply striated, and ridged and furrowed alternately. They are highly impregnated with, if not wholly composed of, the stone of the quarry.†

LETTER IV.

TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ.

As, in last letter, the freestone of this place has been only mentioned incidentally, I shall here become more particular.

This stone is in great request for hearth-stones, and the beds of ovens; and in lining of lime-kilns it turns to good account; for the workmen use sandy loam instead of mortar, the sand

* Modern naturalists have constituted twenty genera of those fossil shells, known by the general appellation of cornu ammonis. The conclusions which geologists have come to regarding them, are these:- 1st, That they are first found in the formation called the lias, and appear in most of the succeeding strata, but seem to have become extinct in the ocean which deposited the hard chalk. The division here alluded to, is what has been named the ammonacea by Lamark, which are shells with a sinous septa, lobed and cut at the margin, meeting together upon the inner wall of the shell, and articulated by jagged sutures. 2d, The orthocerata appear in the early strata, and are continued upwards to the soft chalk stratum, after which they are not seen. These shells are straight, or nearly so, and not spiral. 3d, The oval ammonita are not known in the early strata, but in the hard chalk only, and are not seen afterwards, as if they had been created at a comparatively late period, and had been soon suffered to become extinct. The shells alluded to by our author, which mouldered away, had been the impressions only of these cornua ammonis. — ED.

+ In Corncockle Moor, Dumfries-shire, there is a sandstone quarry, on the slabs of which are distinctly imprinted the tracks of the foot marks of animals. These were discovered in the year 1812. They differ in size from that of a hare's paw to the hoof of a pony. On a slab, which forms part of the wall of a summer-house, in Dr Duncan's garden, at the Manse of Bothwell, there are twenty-four impressions, twelve of the right, and as many of the left foot. Professor Buckland considers that the animals must have been crocodiles or tortoises.-ED.