Part of a Letter from Sir John Clark, one of the Barons of His Majesty's Exchequer in Scotland, and F. R. S. to Rog. Gale, Esq; Tr. R. S. Nov. 6. 1731

"artificial Fissure of the Wood, or other such Deceit, intervene." In fine, the Case is thus: Such as were wont to be frighted with Hobgoblins from their Infancy, hear the Rustling of Phantoms a great way off, and see them walk at Noon-day; while others, who have learned to inquire into the Causes of Things, are by those accounted dull of Sight and Hearing. XVII. Part of a Letter from Sir John Clark, one of the Barons of His MAJESTY's Exchequer in Scotland, and F. R. S. to Rog. Gale, Esq; Tr. R. S. Nov. 6. 1731. —I Was lately in Cumberland, where I observed three Curiosities in Whinfield-Park, belonging to the Earl of Thanet. The first was a huge Oak, at least sixty Foot high, and four in Diameter, upon which the last great Thunder had made a very odd Impression; for a Piece was cut out of the Tree about three Inches broad, and two Inches thick, in a strait Line from Top to Bottom. The second was, that in another Tree of the same Height, the Thunder had cut out a Piece of the same Breadth and Thickness, from Top to Bottom, in a spiral Line, making three Turns about the Tree, and entering into the Ground above six Foot deep. The third was the Horn of a large Deer found in the Heart of an Oak, which was discovered upon cutting down the the Tree. It was found fixed in the Timber with large iron Cramps; it seems therefore, that it had at first been fastened on the Outside of the Tree, which in growing afterwards had inclosed the Horn. In the same Park I saw a Tree thirteen Feet of Diameter. Remarks by the Publisher. This Horn of a Deer found in the Heart of an Oak, and that fastened with Iron Cramps, is one of the most remarkable Instances of this kind, it being the largest extraneous Body we have any-where recorded to have been thus buried, as it were, in the Wood of a Tree. If Joannes Meyerus, and Joannes Petrus Albrechtus, (p. 233.) had seen this, they could not have imagined the Figures seen by them in Beech-trees to have been the Sport of Nature, but must have confessed them to have been the Sport of an idle Hand. To the same Cause are to be ascribed those Figures of Crucifix's, Virgin Mary's, &c. found in the Heart of Trees; as, for Example, the Figure of a Crucifix, which I myself saw at Mastricht, in the Church of the White Nuns of the Order of St. Augustin, said to be found in the Heart of a Walnut-tree upon its being split with Lightning. And it being usual in some Countries to nail small Images of our Saviour on the Cross, of Virgin Mary's, &c. to Trees by the Road-side, in Forests and on Commons; it would be no greater a Miracle to find any of these buried in the Wood of the Tree, than it was to find the Deer's Horn so lodged. Sir Hans Sloane, in his noble Museum, hath a Log of Wood brought by Mr. Cunningham from an Island in the East-Indies, which, upon being split, exhibited these Words in Portuguese, DA BOA ORA. i.e. Det [Deus] bonam Horam. Printed for T. Woodward, at the Half-Moon, between the Two Temple-Gates in Fleetstreet; and C. Davis, over-against Gray's-Inn Gate in Holbourn; Printers to the Royal Society. M.DCC.XLII.