FOSSIL WOOD. 137 



and the looseness of the sand, might have been so rapid as to cover the tree before it had 

 time to decay. Afterwards as the ground continued to subside, additional materials 

 would be continually washed down and spread out towards the north ; and during an 

 additional subsidence and re-elevation of about 50 feet, there is no difficulty in conceiv- 

 ing that a sufficient quantity might have been deposited over the tree, and have been so 

 compacted together as to exhibit all the phenomena described by Judge Foote. Indeed 

 I think we have here abundant evidence in several places that drift materials have been 

 mingled with, and in some cases spread over the pleistocene sands and clays, by the actions 

 of the waves of the sea which occupied this valley in the pleistocene period. 



"In the case of the frogs* mentioned by Dr. Williams, if we admit that the observers 

 were not deceived with regard to their exhumation, the places and circumstances were 

 precisely such as would lead us to conclude that they were buried precisely in the same way 

 we have supposed the tree to have been." 



In his Appendix to Natural History of Vermont, Prof. Thompson describes two more 

 cases of fossil wood. "In making the excavation on Pearl Street, for the reservoir, 

 connected with the aqueduct, which supplies the lower part of Burlington with water, at 

 the depth of 13 feet from the surface of the ground, a large amount of wood, sticks and 

 leaves were found imbedded in clean gravel. The locality is about 200 feet above the 

 lake, and the size of the excavation was 36 feet by 40. The surface of the ground sloped 

 moderately towards the northwest, and was originally covered with timber. The earth, 

 after getting below the soil, was sand and gravel, which had been washed and assorted by 

 water, and was lying in irregular beds, sloping steeply towards the northwest. The 

 vegetable remains formed a mass in the gravel about two feet wide, one and a half feet 

 deep, and 36 feet long, extending in a right line, and was at first mistaken for a rotten 

 tree ; but on breaking it to pieces, it was found to consist of roots, limbs, bark, stems 

 and leaves snugly bedded together, and all of a dark brown color, some portions of it 

 approaching, in appearance, to brown coal. Many of the sticks and roots were perfectly 

 sound, and exhibited the structure of the wood completely, and are, I have little doubt, 

 the American Larch, Pinus pendula. 



" In October, in laying the aqueduct pipes in the south part of the village, wood, resem- 

 bling larch and oak, were found at the depth of 10 feet below the hard pan, and in April, 

 1852, in deepening the well at the Pearl Street House, which is midway between the two 

 localities first mentioned, a piece of wood, ten inches long, six wide and three thick, was 

 found below hard pan, 24 feet from the surface. The Pearl Street House is about 230 

 feet above the lake. Wood has also been found in the central part of the village, in the 

 stratified sand and clay, 20 feet below the surface." 



* The opinion of the Survey respecting these frogs, may be learned by an extract from Hitcluock' s Geology, thirty-first edition, I860, 

 page 234. "Many well authenticated instances are on record, in which toads, snakes and lizards, have been found alive in the solid parts 

 of living trees, and in solid rocks, as well as in gravel, deep beneath the surface. But in these instances the animals undoubtedly crept 

 into such places while young, and after being grown could not get out. Being very tenacious of life, and probably obtaining some 

 nourishment occasionally by seizing upon insects that might crawl into their nidus, they might sometimes continue alive even many 

 years." 



From experiments upon this subject it has been found that if toads are buried deep in the ground, when cut off from all supplies of 

 food, and with only a limited supply of air, their lives are sometimes prolonged as much as two years. These conditions are not as 

 favorable, by any means, as the cases described by Prof. Thompson. 



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