Mr. Pattinson on Fossil Trees hi Denvent Lead Mhie. 185 



guished followers. It is however to be regretted, that these 

 eminent men have either not been aware of the true limits of 

 the science which they cultivate, or have not been satisfied to 

 confine their efforts within the bounds which it prescribes ; 

 but have endeavoured to establish their system as capable of 

 exhibiting a complete arrangement of the vegetable kingdom, 

 which would render unnecessary all the labours of their pre- 

 decessors ; and still more is it to be regretted, that they should 

 have endeavoured to establish such an opinion on the authority 

 of Linnffius himself, and should have represented him as speak- 

 ing a language the most foreign from his thoughts, and as 

 having condemned a system which he laboured with incessant 

 assiduity to establish, on which his hopes of fame were in some 

 measure founded, and which will certainly not defraud him of 

 those honours which are so justly his due. 



XXVI. OntheFossilTreesfoimdinJefferiesItake VeinatDer- 

 •went Lead Mine in the County of Durham. By Mr. H. L. 

 Pattinson, Assay -Master to the Commissioners oJ'Gre envoi ch 

 Hospital iji the Manor of Alston Moor, Cumberland. 



To the Editors of the Philosophical Magazine arid Annals. 

 Gentlemen, 

 T OBSERVE in Mr. Witham's interesting paper « On the 

 -*■ Vegetation of the First Period of an ancient World," pub- 

 lished in your Magazine for the present month, [Jan. ]830.] 

 a notice of the fossil trees discovered about twelve months ago 

 in Jefferies Rake Vein at Derwent Lead Mine in the county of 

 Durham, in which he states that it has been the opinion of sonif 

 gentlemen who have visited these ancient relics, that they havt 

 been washed into and deposited in their present situation by 

 some aqueous revolution. Soon after the discovery of this very 

 singular natural phaenomenon, I visited the place, and must 

 confess I was one of those who drew the conclusion mentioned 

 by Mr. Witham ; at least I conceived, that the trees had been 

 deposited in the situation in which they were found after the 

 formation of the vein, but by what means I did not conjec- 

 ture. The following detail of the particulars connected with 

 this extraordinary occurrence will enable others to judge how 

 far this opinion is borne out by the facts of the case. 



The lead mine of Jelleries Rake seems to form nearly the 

 eastern extremity of a series of very rich lead ore veins, ex- 

 tending from Garrigill Gate tlirougli Ncutliead, Coulcleugh, 

 AllcMihoads, and so on to the Derwent veins; in the counties 

 of Cannborland, NorthuiMberland, and Dinham respectively. 



N.S. Vol. 7. No. 39, March 1«.'50. 2 B The 



