Mr Nicol on the Structure of Fossil Woods. 337 



of it was reduced to the proper thickness, it shewed distinctly 

 the reticulated texture of the recent coniferae. From the faint- 

 ness of the partitions it is not likely that the longitudinal sections 

 would exhibit discs so as to enable us to determine whether the 

 fossil belongs to the Pine or Araucarian division of conifera2, and 

 I have accordingly not attempted to make a longitudinal section. 



The remaining three specimens of Egyptian wood are most 

 obviously dicotyledons. The form and arrangement of the 

 vessels, together with the septa enclosing the vessels, are so well 

 preserved, that they may be distinctly seen in a cross fracture, 

 even without such a fracture being polished. A thin transverse 

 section of one of the specimens, shews, though faintly, even the 

 cellular texture. All the three specimens are so much alike, that 

 they may fairly be referred to one species. What that species 

 was, I do not pretend to determine, but I may mention, that 

 the form and arrangement of the vessels, as well as the cellular 

 texture, bear a considerable resemblance to what may be seen in 

 some kinds of mahogany. 



Mr Jameson Torrie adds the following notice in regard to 

 these Egyptian woods. 



" The specimens described in tlie second section of this pa- 

 per, form part of an interesting series of rocks collected in 

 Egypt and Nubia by the Rev. Vere Monro. The breccia, con- 

 taining fragments of a conifera, is from the neighbourhood of 

 Aboosambal or Ipsambul, in Nubia. The rocks of that dis- 

 trict are sandstones and conglomerates, which form hills present- 

 ing very remarkable conical and pyramidal shapes. Many of 

 the specimens of sandstone are highly ferruginous and much in- 

 durated, and some of them seem to have been taken from masses 

 which, from their hardness, offer much greater resistance to 

 the action of the air than the other portions of the strata. 

 The colour of these fragments is brown internally, but brownish- 

 black externally, and the external shapes rendered apparent 

 by the decomposition of the softer sandstone, are singular, be- 

 ing frequently stalactitic, botryoidal, perforated, vesicular, &c. 

 Tiie physical features of the surface of the country, combined 

 with the peculiarities of the rocks just alluded to, have in- 

 duced a recent traveller to assert the existence of an extensive 

 volcanic district in Nubia, but none of the specimens we have 



