RAMBLING THOUGHTS IN A HANLEY MARL PIT. 73 



times heaping them up in the large fresh-water lakes and 

 embayed sea openings which occupy large portions of that 

 continent (larger than any of our coal-fields); at other times 

 sweeping them out to the open sea and lodging them upon 

 its shores. Descending towards the south of the great con- 

 tinent of North America, we learn from Captain Basil Hall, 

 confirmed by subsequent observations, that similar accumu- 

 lations are constantly taking place towards the mouth of 

 the Mississippi, while the frightful accidents to steamboats, 

 so repeatedly occurring higher up that river and its tribu- 

 tary, the Ohio, from the concealed " snags," attest the con- 

 tinued deposit of large trees, brought down in flood time, 

 and partially buried in the mud, simultaneously deposited 

 by the turbid waters. 



But this trunk, standing on its end, speaks of something 

 besides drifted materials in flood-time. It tells of a quiet, 

 gradual submersion of trees on the spot, so gradual that 

 the trees have not been overturned, but died and were 

 buried on the spot where they flourished. If this were 

 the only specimen, indeed, found in this position it might 

 be supposed that that position was accidental, and that the 

 tree might nevertheless have been drifted far away from its 

 birthplace, retaining or regaining its original position as it 

 grew, but a number of other stems in the same position 

 found in this pit, as well as observations in other coalfields, 

 tell us in unmistakable language that this fine fellow met 

 his end and was buried in his native soil. 



But we must not be misled, and suppose from the size 

 that I am pronouncing the funeral oration of an ancient 

 monarch of the forest. I am not mourning over a vene- 

 rable cedar or slow-growing oak. I am rather looking at 

 a broken reed. It is a calamite, and it is no calumny 



