Notice of Mr. Schoolcraft^ s Memoir of a Fossil Tree. 23 



edge extended thirty-four feet higher than the surface of 

 the water, carrying up hundreds of smaller cakes to the 

 same height. This mountain of ice having taken its stand 

 here, is now melting away, and leaving the gravel on the 

 bank, which it transported from the northern counties. 



I do not record this as an uncommon occurrence. But 

 since it seems to be a rule among geologists to trace the de- 

 rivation of alluvial deposits to localities more elevated than 

 those where they are found, it may be well to remind them 

 of contingencies of the above nature. 



Respectfully yours, AMOS EATON. 



Troy, JV. Y, March 12, 1822. 



Art. IV. — 'IIo7iorahIe notice of Mr. Schooler aft'^s memoir of 



a Fossil Tree. 



REMARKS, 



In our last we published the substance of the Memoir of 

 Mr. Schoolcraft on the fossil tree of the river des Plaines. 

 Having been favored with copies of letters on ihis subject, 

 addressed to the author by the three American Ex-Presi- 

 dents, we presume, of course, that the public will be gratified 

 by the perusal of the remarks of these distinguished men. 



''Sir, 



"QuiNCY, 27th January, 1822. 



I THANK you for your memoir on the fossil tree, which is 

 very well written, and the conjectures en the process of na- 

 ture in producing it, are plausible and probable. It is the 

 most remarkable exemplification of petrifaction that I have ev- 

 er met with, although I have seen many that I thought curious. 

 I once lay a week wind-bound in Portland road in England, 

 and went often ashore, and ascended the mountain from 

 whence they get all the Portland stone which they employ 

 in building. In a morning walk with some of the American 

 passengers of the Lucretia, capt. Calehan, we passed by a 

 iiandsome house at the foot of the hili, with a handsome 

 front yard behind it. Upon the top of one of the posts of 

 this yard, lay a fish coiled up in a spiral figure, which caught 

 my eye. I stopped and gazed at it with some curiosity : 

 presently a person in the habit and appearance of a substan- 



