375 



nitz, in Hungary ; and in several parts of Wirterriberg, Franconia, 

 Lower Saxony, c. But from the very few specimens of this kind 

 of wood, which we obtain from the continent, and, indeed, from 

 their being so little dwelt on by the French and German writers on 

 fossils, it seems that they exist more plentifully in this- island, than 

 elsewhere. The specimens which are in most repute, for their 

 beauty and preservation, are those which are found in Dorsetshire, 

 in the neighbourhood of Charmouth ; in Somersetshire, particu- 

 larly in the neighbourhood of Bath ; handsome specimens have also 

 been found in Derbyshire, Dorsetshire, Oxfordshire, and in many 

 other counties of England. 



The appearance of the wood, in this species of fossil wood, as 

 well as in the silicious, shows that the wood, which has been thus 

 petrified, existed previously, either in a dry and shivered, or in a 

 bituminous state. A specimen, from Oxfordshire, is figured in 

 Plate VI. Fig. 16. It is of a pale ash colour ; and the light and 

 fragile woody fibres may yet be seen very plainly, although much 

 broken, intersected, and separated by the crystallizations of the 

 calcareous spar, which has pervaded every part. The substance of 

 this fossil is rather tender; yielding sometimes, even to the force 

 of the fingers. Its gravity is of course considerably less than that 

 of silicious wood. Although the greater part, by far, of its bulk 

 is formed by the spathose matter, yet the form of the wood is tole- 

 rably well preserved ; the natural direction of the fibres of the wood 

 seeming to have directed, for the most part, the crystallizations 

 into striae, converging towards the centre of the wood, as may be 

 observed in its section, shown at Fig. 2. of the same Plate. Distinct 

 masses of crystallizations and veins of spar may frequently be ob- 

 served to penetrate its substance in various parts. 



A specimen of the Charmouth fossil wood is represented in Plate 

 III. Fig. 9 The colour of this kind of fossil wood is darker than 

 the former, it being of a deep brown colour. It is harder than that 



