the Mode of Deposition of Coal Strata. 251 



ment. Had this strange idea been well founded, we must 

 have discovered such fossil trees in many more instances than 

 we do: they must have been almost always upright, and in- 

 variably furnished with roots and branches. This, however, 

 is rarely the case ; they lie in every degree of inclination from 

 horizontal to vertical : they have not always roots, very rarely 

 branches, and I have never heard of an instance with the 

 smaller twigs and leaves. If this able geologist was deeply 

 struck with a fossil stem of only nine feet, and piercing three 

 strata of sandstone, what must he think of such stems as have 

 since been frequently found (as in Craigleith quarry near Edin- 

 burgh,) of from 50 to 70 feet in length, and piercing ten or 

 twelve different and distinct strata * ? 



Before concluding these cursory remarks on the coal for- 

 mations, I am also desirous of calling the attention of your 

 scientific readers to another very remarkable fact, with regard 

 to these carboniferous strata, which, I believe, has only been 

 described by the same able writer whom I have just cited, and 

 which also appears to me to offer a powerful resistance to our 

 most received theories respecting them. 



After describing the remarkable deposits of coal near Co- 

 logne, in which are imbedded " trunks of trees deprived of 

 their branches, 'which proves their having been transported 

 from a distance, and also nuts which are indigenous to Hi?i- 

 dostan and China" Mr. Bakewell proceeds as follows : " But 

 a still more remarkable formation occurs at Alpnach near the 

 lake of Lucerne, in Switzerland, where a bed of coal is found 

 at the depth of 280 feet from the surface. Over this coal there 

 is a stratum of limestone containing fuviatile" (?) "shells, and 

 the bones and teeth of a species of Mastodon, and of other large 

 land quadrupeds. Notwithstanding the occurrence of the bones 

 of large mammalia in this stratum over the coal, in this place, 

 the coal approaches in character nearly to mineral coal ; and 

 the strata of micaceous sandstones and shales above it, have a 

 close resemblance to those of our English coalfields : but though 

 from these organic remains we are compelled to place the coal 

 of Alpnach amongst the tertiary strata, or else to admit the 

 occurrence of an anomalous formation like the one at Stones- 

 field, still I believe the true geological position of this coal is 

 problematical; and it deserves the particular attention of some 



* [A notice of the fossil tree discovered at Craigleith in 1826 will he 

 found in Mr. Witham's paper before referred to ; but this tree, we have 

 to remark, was found in a nearly horizontal position, corresponding with 

 the dip of the strata. — Edit.] 



2 K2 



