136 FOSSIL TEEE. 



and could bo shoveled without being previously loosened with the pickax. After penetra- 

 ting this sand about four feet, on forcing the shovel into it, all at once it went down, 

 apparently into a vacant cavity, almost the whole length of the handle, to the no small 

 terror of the man who was using it. Upon examination, it was found that it had entered 

 a cavity occupied for the most part by the remains of a tree which must have been about 

 two feet in diameter. It was nearly horizontal, extending in an eastern and western 

 direction. The greater part of the wood which remained was^rotten and quite soft, and 

 yet some considerable portions of it were perfectly sound, as was also the bark generally. 

 Some of the sound portions of the tree were taken out and whittled with a knife, and 

 Judge Foote pronounced it, without hesitation, to be white pine. Unfortunately none of 

 it was preserved. The distance from the natural surface of the ground to the tree was 

 carefully measured, and found to be 29i feet. 



" The whole body of the tree was enveloped in sand, which was six or eight inches deep 

 directly beneath it. At this depth the workman came to a stratum, several inches thick, 

 of muck, or swamp mud, which afforded evidence of having been formed of decayed sticks 

 and leaves. 



" That the foregoing is a correct statement of facts there can be no reasonable doubt. 



" Here, then, was a tree buried 30 feet deep in the solid earth, and the question is how 

 it came there. To answer this question, a careful consideration of the circumstances will 

 be necessary. Now the surface of the ground where this well was dug is about 250 feet 

 above Lake Champlain. The site of the University is 277 feet above the lake, and the 

 highest part of the elevation, upon the western declivity on which the village of 

 Burlington is built, is about fifty feet higher or about 327 feet above the lake. The sur- 

 face of the country around this well is much lower in all directions than the place where 

 the well was dug. It is plain, therefore, that the tree could not have been buried by 

 materials brought down by any river. 



"Was it then covered during the drift period ? The materials certainly resemble the 

 deposits denominated drift ; but as we find no organic remains in our drift, unless this is 

 an exception, I am disposed to refer it to what we have called the pleistocene period. 

 Now we have abundant evidence that after the formation of the immense deposits of the 

 drift period, there was a general subsidence of the whole valley of Lake Champlain 

 to such an extent that all places, which are not now as much as about 300 feet above the 

 lake, were submerged beneath the waters of the ocean. When, in the course of this subsi- 

 dence, the surface of the ground where the buried tree lay was depressed to the level of 

 the arm of the ocean, then occupying the valley of Lake Champlain the summit upon 

 which the University stands must have been an island composed of drift materials, and 

 elevated about 100 feet above the surface of the water. At this period the island must 

 have presented towards the north a steep bank, composed of loose materials, at least 60 

 feet high, at the bottom of which, nearly on the level of the water, was a small tract of 

 swampy ground. Now as the subsidence went on and the water flowed in upon the 

 swamp to the foot of this bank, the waves, acting upon the finer portions, would wash 

 them down, cover up the muck and also the tree which had lodged on the shore at the 

 foot of the bank. The first part of the process, on account of the steepness of the bank 



