the Carbo7iiferous Strata near Wigan. 26 1 



During an examination of the deep excavations through 

 the coal-measures made in forming the Bury and Liverpool 

 Railway in the vicinity of Wigan, I was so fortunate as to 

 discover on the 2 1st day of April last, in the Pemberton Hill 

 cutting about two miles west of Wigan, not only a whole forest 

 of Sigillariae standing erect with their roots just as they had 

 grown, but also many Calamites in a similar state of perfec- 

 tion. 



The accompanying woodcut, fig. 1, representing a view of 

 the south side of the railway cutting, will show the position 

 in which the fossils occurred, although it is on an exaggerated 

 scale, and the characters of the trees are not given. 



Fig. 1. 



The excavation in which the fossils were met with is about 

 twenty-five feet deep, and consists chiefly of a light gray- 

 coloured silty clay known by the provincial name of" Warren," 

 containing nodules of ironstone. This deposit is very similar 

 in composition to the strata in which the fossil trees at St. 

 Helens and Dukinfield before described were found. It lies 

 between two beds of coal each about two feet in thickness, and 

 occupies a position in the higher part of the middle division 

 of the Lancashire coal-field. The upper seam of coal is 

 covered, and in some places partly removed, by a deposit of 

 one or two yards in thickness of till. Near the bridge is seen 

 a flexure in the strata, as shown in the woodcut. 



In Mr. Haliburton's section at Haigh (vol. vi. New Series, 

 of Manchester Memoirs, p. 437, Remarks on the Coal District 

 of South Lancashire, by James Heyvvood, Esq., F.R.S.), occur 

 the following strata : — 



