VEGETATION OF THE DRIFT. 77 



In the excavations which have been made for the Marine 

 Hospital, and for other purposes in this city, and in wells 

 dug in different parts of Northern Ohio, fragments of wood, 

 of greater or less size, have frequently been brought to light. 



Of these fragments, such as have been brought under my 

 observation, have been nearly all of one character, being 

 rolled and broken pieces of the trunks of trees, of moderate 

 dimensions, and which usually exhibit, under the micro- 

 scope, the structure of the wood of the Coniferae. 



Occasionally, the entire trunk has been found, as in the 

 case mentioned by Mr. Miller; but, in these cases, the 

 branches and roots are always broken off, the trunk nearly 

 or quite denuded of bark, and its whole appearance showing 

 that the tree has been uprooted from its place of growth 

 and born along by a current of water, associated with other 

 hard substances, by which it was for a long time triturated 

 and worn. 



The most interesting of these remains of the Drift Vege- 

 tation, which 1 have seen, was presented to me by Col. 

 Charles Whittlesey, who has so carefully studied the phe- 

 nomena of the Drift in the Western States. 



This is a cone^ in which the general appearance and the 

 internal structure are well preserved and distinctly visible. 

 It was obtained from a drift deposite some thirty-five feet 

 below the surface, near the mouth of Yellow Creek, Colum- 

 biana county, Ohio, (not far from the locality mentioned by 

 Mr. Miller,) where it was associated with a large quantity 

 of vegetable remains, and with the jaw of an extinct tapir- 

 oid animal. 



This cone is cylindrical, about four inches long, and evi- 

 dently once belonged to a species of Abies^ indeed, it closely 

 resembles the cone of the Balsam Fir — A, halsamea — which 

 now grows nowhere spontaneously in Ohio, being emphati- 

 cally a Northern plant. 



But I do not propose now to give a detailed description of 

 the facts or specimens which I have collected relatiiig to 

 the vegetation of the Drift period. At another time I shall 



