hydrolysis of cellulose. Whether similar or comparable 
environmental factors are operative in terrestrial carbon- 
aceous sediments remains to be determined. 
The general uniformity of degradation in wood after 
prolonged submergence in sediments of diverse compo- 
sition attests to the operation of a widely diffused set of 
factors which result in the gradual hydrolysis of the less 
resistant cellulosic fractions. In the case of the archeolo- 
gical remains previously noted it was found that wooden 
stakes, driven through successive strata of marine silt, 
peat and glacial blue clay, were uniformly degraded 
throughout, the physical condition of the stakes being 
identical in their entire length regardless of the surround- 
ing media and the duration of submergence (Bailey and 
Barghoorn, 1942). Hence, the hydrolytic degradation of 
the cellulose appears to have progressed at an approxi- 
mately similar rate regardless of the matrix. Similarly, 
entire stumps, logs or branches which have been sub- 
merged for periods exceeding thousands of years may be- 
come uniformly degraded and softened throughout, ex- 
hibiting no significant differences between their periphe- 
ral and interior parts. Occasionally the innermost por- 
tions of larger stumps may retain a core of intact or 
incompletely degraded wood. When freshly removed 
from its matrix the wood often shows little or no com- 
pression failure, nor even any significant change from its 
original volume; upon drying, however, it contracts ex- 
cessively. Anatomical and chemical study shows that 
such degraded wood consists primarily of the lignin res- 
idue of the original wood substance, its cellulose content 
being reduced to a small fraction of the original, fre- 
quently on the order of three to five per cent. The per- 
sisting fraction of the cellulose, significantly, however, 
is found restricted primarily to those more resistant layers 
of the cell wall previously described. All of this evidence 
[ 10 ] 
