150 Geological Society. 



Immediately a1)ove the uppermost coal-seams and vertical trees 

 are two strata, probably of freshwater origin, of black calcareo- 

 bituminons shale, chiefly made up of compressed shells of two 

 species o( Modiola, and two kinds of Ci/pris. 



StigmaricE are abundant in the clays and argillaceous sandstones; 

 often with their leaves attached, and spreading regularly in all direc- 

 tions from the stem. The other plants dispersed through the shales 

 and sandstones bear a striking resemblance to those of the European 

 coal-fields. Among these are Pccopteris lonchitica, Neuropteris 

 Jiexuosalf, Calamites ccmnceformis, C.approximatus^ C. Steinhaueri, 

 C. nodosus, Sigillaria undidata, and another species. 



The genera hepidodendron and Sternbergia are also present. 

 The same plants occur at Pictou and at Sydney in Cape Breton, ac- 

 companied with Trigonocarpum^ Asterophyllites, Sphcciiophgllum, 

 and other well-known coal fossils. 



The author then gives a brief description of a bed of erect Ca- 

 lamites, first discovered by Mr. J. Dawson in the Pictou coal-field, 

 about 100 miles eastward of tlie Cumberland coal-measures before 

 described. They occur at Dickson's mills, 1:|: mile west of Pictou, 

 in a bed of sandstone about ten feet thick. They all terminate 

 downwards at the same level where the sandstone rests on subjacent 

 limestone ; but the tops are broken ofi^ at different heights, and 

 Mr. Davvson observed in the same bed a prostrate Lepidodcndron, 

 with leaves and Lepidostrohi attached to its branches. 



From the facts above enumerated, Mr. Lyell draws the following 

 conclusions : — 



1. That the erect position of the trees, and their perpendicularity 

 to the planes of stratification, imply that a thickness of several thou- 

 sand feet of coal strata, now uniformly inclined at an angle of 24-°, 

 were deposited originally in a horizontal position. 



2. There must have been repeated sinkings of the dry land to 

 allow of the growth of more than ten forests of fossil trees one above 

 the other, an inference which is borneoutby the independent evidence 

 afforded by the Stigmaria,{o\ii\(k intheunderclays beneath coal-scams 

 in Nova Scotia, as first noticed in South Wales by Mr. Logan. 



3. The correspondence in general characters of the erect trees of 

 Nova Scotia with those found near Manchester, leads to the opinion 

 that this tribe of plants may have been enabled by the strength of its 

 large roots to withstand the power of waves and currents much more 

 effectually than the Lepidodendra and other coal plants moi'i; rarely 

 found in a perpendicular position. 



Lastly, it has been objected, that if seams of pure coal were formed 

 on the ground where the vegetables grew, they M'ould not bear so 

 precise a resemblance to ordinary subaqueous strata, but ought to 

 undulate like the present surface of the dry land. Li answer to this 

 Mr. Lyell points to what were undoubtedly terrestrial surfaces at 

 the South Joggins, now represented by coal seams or layers of shale 

 supporting erect trees, and yet these surfaces conform as correctly 

 to the general planes of stratification as those of any other strata. 



He also shows that such an absence of superficial inequalities, 



