22 INTRODUCTION. 



disintegrated wood might be floated away from the case of rind, which 

 would be quite inconceivable if trees and branches had simply fallen into 

 stagnant water. As regards the softening of the wood, we know that this may 

 be constantly observed at the present day in wet neglected forests. I have 

 myself seen the conditions assumed by Grand' Eury in the case of the 

 forests of the Coal-measures very well shown in the Bohmerwald, in the 

 primeval forests at Arber and Kubany. We may also compare the descrip- 

 tion given by Goppert l . The softening of the wood reduces it to a shape- 

 less plastic mass, which is easily penetrated in every direction by the roots 

 of other plants (Stigmarias), and settles itself and becomes folded together, 

 and thus in many cases so alters the disposition of its elements, that in 

 wide-celled coniferous woods even the lumina of the individual cells dis- 

 appear by collapse of the membranes. This is the case with the wood of 

 all kinds in lignite, and constantly strikes the attention of every one who 

 examines fossil woods. The timbers from the Dorothea mine near Clausthal 

 mentioned above, which were converted into lignite, were moist and of soft 

 leathery consistence in the place in which they were found, and only became 

 hard after a short exposure to the air. That the woods also from -the 

 petrified forest of Radowenz were in a perfectly soft state before petrification 

 is concluded by Goppert 2 from the circumstance, that they often show small 

 superficial pits with a bit of flint at the bottom of each pit. These bits of 

 flint must have sunk into the substance while it was still soft. 



Amid similar countless fragments of wood which rotted away on the 

 wet soil of the forest, the flint pebbles of Grand' Croix also occasionally 

 contain well-preserved bits of twigs and leaves, and even flowers and 

 inflorescences in almost perfect condition. This state of things too would 

 be very difficult to explain on the theory of a purely autochthonous deposi- 

 tion ; we should rather expect to find all the remains in a nearly similar 

 and medium condition. But it would be sure to occur in case of transport 

 by running water, which would carry away with it at the same time frag- 

 ments just fallen from a tree and such as had long lain rotting on the ground. 

 Again, without the eddies caused by the confluence of streams we should be 

 quite unable to account for the frequent enormous accumulations of wood, 

 leaves, and seeds in separate heaps. Grand' Eury 3 gives many examples 

 from St. Etienne of such local accumulations of seeds of Gymnosperms, 

 pointing to a succession of deposits in flowing water ; a layer of sandstone 

 was found in his time in a railway-cutting near Jagersfreude in Saarbriicken, 

 which was entirely composed of hard nodules formed of casts of seeds of 

 Gymnosperms and caked together so as to form a conglomerate. The 

 anomalous arrangement also of the beds of conglomerates which overlie the 



1 Goppert (16). Goppert (17). Grand' Eury (2). 



