6'Mi FOCftTH REPORT — 1834. 



The red gypsum occurs in irregular masses, from the size of 

 a walnut to 3 or 4 feet in diameter. The white is in thin veins, 

 not always, but generally in the same beds with the red gyp- 

 sum ; and whenever they come in contact, the thin white vein is 

 invariably cut off and intercepted by nodules of the red, which 

 has therefore been the more recently formed. Although gyp- 

 sum occurs in abundance in this district, no rock-salt in a mi- 

 neral state has been found : but several springs are known in 

 it which contain a considerable quantity of salt ; for example, 

 on an analysis of well-water at the Manse of Eccles, out of 87 

 parts, 57 were found to be sulphate of lime, and 30 of common 

 salt ; and in the mineral water of Dunse Spa (also within the 

 limits of the marl group), as analysed a number of years ago by 

 Dr. F. Home, a large proportion of common salt was found. 



Vegetable fossils have been found among the marl -beds form- 

 ing very extensive deposits. At three or four several localities 

 large trees have been discovered, in beds of blue clay, in a petri- 

 fied state. The trunks vary in size from a few inches to several 

 feet in diameter ; but none have yet been discovered of any 

 length : indeed, none exceed 3 or 4 feet, and they have generally 

 the appearance of having been transported from some distance, 

 being rounded at the ends. These trees have been converted 

 into a hard calcareous rock, which does not always assume the 

 shape and size of the tree enveloped in it, but is generally a 

 little larger, and on being broken presents an accumulation of 

 small twigs and branches of trees, which are found to be of the 

 same species as the imbedded tnmks. These fossils have been 

 all ascertained to belong to the genus Coniferce. 



These fossil trees are always covered or skinned over by a 

 coaly matter, which seems to have been the original bark, and 

 which has been occasionally found nearly one inch thick. 



The internal parts of those fossils have not been so entirely 

 displaced by the intrusion of calcareous matter as to have lost 

 all their woody structure. On the contrary, specimens are con- 

 stantly met with in which the branch or trunk displays all the 

 concentric rings formed by the annual growths. The original 

 resinous matter of the tree has been seen oozing or exuding 

 from its interior fibres. 



Many of the trees have been flattened, and flattened so en- 

 tirely as to show that the whole of the interior parts have been, 

 as it were, squeezed out, whilst the bark above has been pre- 

 served, of course in a state of coal, and now appearing as thin 

 seams of lignite in the beds of clay. 



Besides these deposits of trees in the beds of clay, there are 

 numberless impressions of vegetables in the marl-strata very 



