RELICS FROM THE WRECK 41 



corn and wrenched off by a hurricane an appearance which 

 many trees in this neighborhood (Bristol) after the late 

 storm, strikingly resembled. Some of the trunks were two 

 feet in diameter, and the united fragments of one tree mea- 

 sured upwards of thirty feet in length ; in other specimens, 

 branches were attached to the stem. In the dirt-bed there 

 were many trunks lying prostrate, and fragments of 

 branches. The fossil plants are called Cycadeodia, by Dr. 

 Buckland, from their analogy to the recent Cycas and 

 Zamia, but for which M. Adolphe Brongniart has established 

 a new genus, named Mantellia. The plants occurred at in- 

 tervals between the trees, and the dirt-bed was so little con- 

 solidated, that I dug up with a spade, as from a floor, seve- 

 eral specimens that must have been on the very spot on 

 which they grew, like the columns of Puzzioli, preserved 

 erect amidst all the revolutions which the surface of the 

 earth have subsequently undergone, and beneath the accu- 

 mulated spoils of numberless ages. The trees and plants 

 are completely petrified by silex or flint." 



From what has been stated, it is evident, that after the 

 marine strata, forming the base of the isle of Portland 

 were deposited at the bottom of a deep sea, and had become 

 consolidated, the bed of that ancient ocean was elevated 

 above the level of the waters, became dry land, and was 

 covered by forests. How long this new country existed 

 cannot now be ascertained but that it flourished for a con- 

 siderable period is certain, from the number and magnitude 

 of the trees of the petrified forest. In the isle of Purbeck 

 traces of the dirt-bed, with trunks of trees, are seen be- 

 neath the fresh water limestone of the Weald ; a proof that ? 

 before the deposition of the Purbeck marble could have ta- 

 ken place, the petrified forest must have sunk to the depth 

 of many hundred feet. 



Space will not permit us to describe the other varieties 

 of the vegetable kingdom which occur in secondary strata ; 



