82 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



is nothing to show whether this example exhibits the full size of the 

 trunk, or not, but this tree was not so large as some others that have 

 been dug out of these sandstones, or seen in them. 



The total number of years (or seasons) indicated by the rings in 

 tliis tree as its period of growth was about 100. The amount of annual 

 or seasonal wood is less than that of many forest trees now living, not- 

 withstanding its large pith-cylinder, for a large pith-cylinder in a modern 

 tree is supposed to indicate a tree of rapid growth. Among trees now 

 living in this region the White Cedar, Thuja occidentalis, may be cited 

 as one that has about the same thickness of annual wood. 



To recapitulate the number of layers given above for this tree there 

 was: 1 



(a) Pith-cylinder layers 



(b) Zone of 1 inch layers 26 



(c) " 13^ " " 35 



(d) " 1/2 " " 10 



(e) " 1 " " 20 



(f ) " lA " " 10 



101 



The author has been thus full in describing this ancient tree trunk, 

 because it is one of those obtained by him many years ago' when he sent 

 the fossils to Sir "William Dawson from which this distinguished palaeon- 

 tologist described his species. 



These fossils were gathered at a place then called Barrack Point, 

 which is now crowned by the large tanks of the Imperial Oil Co. 



It should be remarked that there are two types of tree trunks im- 

 bedded in the sandstones at this point as the author has stated on a 

 former page, some such as that above described, others smaller and 

 devoid of annual growth layers, or at least not showing such layers dis- 

 tinctly. 



Several tininks of these two species are sometimes found thrown to- 

 gether in one pocket, and from the way in which the ends are ground off, 

 it is clear that the trees did not grow at the places where they are buried, 

 but have been transported thither from a distance; they may have been 

 borne along by some considerable river and cast out on the sandbanks at 

 its mouth. 



Layers of these sandstones are found covered with a matted mass of 

 plant stems and trunks of considerable size, but of a much less resisting 

 substance than these gymnospermous tree trunks ; some can be recognized 



1 See plate I for the position of these zones. 



