396 APPENDIX. 



It was cut and mangled by tlie axe, but still moved. I drew it 

 with difficulty from its abode, or rather prison, which it filled so 

 completely that it seemed to have been compressed. I placed it 

 on the grass ; it appeared old, thin, languishing, decrepit. We 

 afterwards examined the tree with the nicest care, to discover 

 how it had glided in; butth^ tree was perfectly whole and sound." 

 — European Magazine. */ 



Bat. — A woodman engaged in splitting timber for rail-posts 

 in the woods close by the lake in Haming (a seat of Mr. Pringie's 

 in Selkirkshire), lately discovered, in the centre of a large wild 

 cherry tree, a living bat, of a bright scarlet color, which he fool- 

 ishly suffered to escape, from fear, being fully persuaded it was 

 (with the characteristic superstition of the inhabitants of that part 

 of the country) a " being not of this world," The tree presented 

 a small cavity in the centre, where the bat was inclosed, but is 

 perfectly sound and solid on each side. — N. Y. Lit. Journ. and 

 Belles-Letires Rej)ository, taken from the London Semi-Monthly 

 Magazine. 



Skull in Wood. — A tenant of the Eev. J. Cattle, of Warwick, 

 lately presented to him a part of the solid butt of an oak tree, 

 containing within it the skull of some animal (unknown). It was 

 in the part of the tree nine feet above the ground, and was per- 

 fectly inclosed in solid timber. — N. Y. Lit. Journ. and Belles- 

 Lettres Repository^ from European Magazine. 



X. 



A Memoir on the Geological Position of a Fossil-Tree in the Series of 

 the Secondary Rocks of the Tllinois. 



The spirit of inquiry which has been excited in this country 

 in regard to objects of natural history, while it has enlarged the 

 boundaries of our knowledge of existing species, has directed 

 some of its more valuable researches to those organized forms 

 which have perished and become embalmed in the shape of 

 petrifactions, in the body of solid rocks. A petrified tree of 

 this kind has recently been discovered in the secondary* rocks 



* This term is superseded, in geological discussions of the present day, by the 

 term silurian, which embraces all strata of the era between the palssozoic and ter- 

 tiary formations. 



