OF

METAMORPHOSES,

Or a CATALOGUE of

SPECIMENS

OF THE

Tranfmutation of one fort of matter into another,

Res obfcura quidem eft

Mira tamen: vidi præfens ftagnumque lacumque
Prodigio notum.

Ovid Met. lib. 4.

Dic age (nam cunctis eadem eft audire voluptas)
Quis fuerit Cœneus, cur in contraria verfus ? lib. 12.

Alfo a CATALOGUE of

GEMS and CRYSTALS found on the Shore,

AND IN THE

Neighbourhood of LOUGH NEAGH

LECTURE III.

Sedebat

In folio Phoebus claris lucente fmaragdis. Ovid Met.
I

ADVERTISEMENT.

C

ONFIDENCE in a writer is always difagreeable to a reader: Because readers may have as good an opinion of their judgments as the writer has of his, and would rather feem to teach themfelves, than be taught by any one. The Inquirer therefore is quite averfe from giving any opinion in his book with a confident affurance of its truth; he only defires to fhew upon what principles of reafoning he founds his judgment, which he has in great measure done in the foregoing Lectures, and if the fame degree of evidence appears to others, when thefe principles come to be applied to the phænomena treated in the following Lecture, the confequence will be the fame opinion. But whether his reasoning be upon true principles or not, or whether the application of them to the phænomena be just or not, the phænomena themselves, of which the catalogue follows, as neceffary to be perused before reasoning can be founded upon them, is a valuable discovery; and the credit of this, it is hoped, the reader will not refuse him. Honesty is what fhould always belong to human nature, because every man can give this to himself: Ingenuity is a divine gift, and is not the talent of many. As a natural hiftorian therefore, he hopes, to have credit with thofe, whofe diftance from hence will not allow an ocular view of the fpecimens. For the annext catalogue is intended for. the use of foreigners; by foreigners are to be understood, all those, who are out of the reach of an ocular infpection, wherefoever they fhall be depofited: And that, it is hoped, will be in the Chartered Society of fome ftate in Europe, who will give a reasonable price for them. At prefent they are depofited in the mufæum of the Rev. Dr. Richard Pococke, Archdeacon of Dublin, and fellow of the royal Society; whose