114 



of vegetable origin,, may be accounted for, in the opinion of Dr. 

 Milles, from the nature of its principles, and their disposition, when 

 united, to assume certain forms. 



It must not be omitted to remark, that the strata of Bovey ac- 

 cord very much with those of Munden and Allendorf ; the stratum 

 of wood, both in Germany and England, being accompanied with 

 clays, boles, and sand. At Bovey, there also are beds of very 

 fine pipe-clay, of which great quantities used to be sent to Liver- 

 pool. 



The fossil wood of Iceland, described by Wormius*, appears to 

 be also of this kind. The surturbrand or sortebrande, accord- 

 ing to his account, being a laminated substance, generally black, 

 but sometimes only of a dark brown colour. When first dug out of 

 the earth, it is capable of being bent like a twig ; but it is brittle, 

 when dry. It consists of oblique fibres, frequently interrupted by 

 knots, like the roots of a great tree, which are full of crevices. This 

 stratum is found, he says, some yards under the earth, in a moun- 

 tain so high and perpendicular, that those only who have been ac- 

 customed to climb such precipices, can venture to dig for it. There 

 is no appearance, that trees ever grew where this fossil is found ; 

 Wormius, however, concludes them to be roots of trees turned 

 black, by a subterraneous vitriolic juice. 



Horrebow, in his History of Iceland f, describes the sortebrande, 

 or black-brand, as an extraordinary sort of wood, very hard, heavy 

 and black, like ebony ; which is found deep in the ground, in broad, 

 thin, and pretty large pannels, or leaves ; fit for a moderated sized 

 table. It is, he says, generally wavy and undulated ; and found in 

 the rocks or great stones, wedged, as it were, close in. 



But the most satisfactory account we have had of the fossil wood 



of Iceland, is given by Dr. Uno Von Troil, from the observations 



i 



* Mus. Wormian, lib. ii. cap. 16. 



f The Natural History of Iceland, By Horrebow, p. 33. 



