Primary tabs
Transcription
[Page 14]
then Ship a large Part by the assistance of which the Captain Leaves the Ship when his business is done & she is securely fastend to the Enemy.
This Evening I went to see Mr Allchurches Collection of Fossills &c: from whom I Purchasd some Good Crabbs a midling Nautilus &c: to better my Collection of Shepey [Sheppey] fossils he also Gave me Some Specimens of Corrallins one particularly which he had taken from the Bottom of the Loestof on her return from the west indies which appears to me very singular, this Evening supd [supped] with Mr Purvis & had an opportunity of seeing a substance which his wife who was born at Madrass [Madras] informd me was the real Snake stone so famous for Extracting Poison it was oval one inch & ¾ tr long & 7/8ths of an inch Broad one side was Convex of a shining ash Colour with a Cloudy Spot of Black at Each of the Extremities it Bore a tolerable Polish which seemd to have been given to it by art but at the same time was full of small holes shewing it to be of a Porous substance the other side was flat & seemd as if the stone had been cut of from Another of the same size & shape it was Jet black upon which the ash Colour shewd itself to be a Skin or Coat about ½ a line in thickness the two sides of it were Solid but through the middle ran a number of little hollows & unevennesses as you see in The middle of the Bones of animals, in short had I picked up a stone Exactly similar to this I should not have hesitated