410 GEOLOGY OF THE ISLE OF WIGHT. 



the country and its forests, and deposited upon the 

 soil and around the trees a calcareous mud, which 

 was gradually consolidated into limestone ; thermal 

 streams, holding flint in solution, percolated the 

 mass, and silicified the submerged trees and 

 plants. 



A further subsidence took place, floods of 

 freshwater overwhelmed the petrified forest, and 

 heaped upon it accumulations of detritus, which 

 streams and rivers had transported from the land. 

 The country traversed by the rivers, like that of 

 the submerged forest, enjoyed a tropical climate, 

 and was clothed with palms, arborescent ferns, 

 and cycadeae ; it was tenanted by gigantic her- 

 bivorous and carnivorous reptiles, and its waters 

 abounded in turtles, and various kinds of fishes, 

 and mollusca. The bones of the reptiles, the 

 teeth and scales of the fishes, the shells of the 

 mollusca, and the stems, leaves, and seed-vessels of 

 the trees and plants, were brought down by the 

 streams, and imbedded in the mud of the delta, 

 beneath which the petrified forest was now 

 buried. 



This state continued for an indefinite period — 

 another change tookplace — the Country of Reptiles 

 with its inhabitants was swept away, and the 

 delta, and the fossil trees with the marine strata on 



