during the Deposit of the Tra?isition and Coal series. 25 



more consistent with the supposition that they grew on the 

 spot where they were found. The confused heaping, fractur- 

 ing and violence, which characterize diluvial action, are not 

 seen here. 



In proceeding towards the east, I received much valuable 

 information from my intelligent friends Mr. Buddie, an emi- 

 nent coal viewer upon the rivers Tyne and Wear, and Mr. 

 Hutton of Newcastle, whose anxiety in pursuit of this branch 

 of the science is so well known. In the great Newcastle coal- 

 field, the fossil plants are generally in horizontal position, or 

 parallel with the strata, in the greatest possible confusion; 

 much broken, and the parts far separated. Indeed, the con- 

 fusion is the most serious difficulty the observer has to contend 

 with. It is difficult, however, to trace the operation of a cur- 

 rent of water sweeping off the weaker vegetables, and depo- 

 siting them where we now find them so beautifully preserved. 

 Notwithstanding this, there are to be found in considerable 

 abundance, in various positions, large and strong trunks of 

 plants which appear to remain in their natural position, and 

 which have been able to withstand the force of such torrent, if 

 it can be proved that any such did exist. These vertical 

 plants I have generally found to be the Sigillarice. The Sagi- 

 narice, the Stigmarice, and Calamites (speaking generally), on 

 the contrary, do not appear to have been sufficiently strong to 

 have resisted any revolutionary influence. Below the main 

 seam (which according to Mr. Forster's section of the strata 

 is 150 yards below the surface), in a sandstone there are num- 

 bers of fossil plants standing erect, with their roots in a small 

 seam of coal lying below. These stems, as you will per- 

 ceive by the following diagram, are truncated, and lost in this 

 seam, leaving room to believe they may have formed part of 

 this combustible mass or bed. 



High Main Seam. 



Again, in some of the seams, when the coal is worked away 

 by the miners, the roof often falls. This is to a considerable 

 degree owing to the number of vegetable impressions breaking 

 the coherence of the stratum and bringing these fossils along 



N.S. Vol. 7. No. 37. Jan. 1830. E with 



