CA NA DIA N no R TICUL TUlilST. 



107 



with great care, will give an i(l«!a of this 

 gigantic fossil wonder: — 



The diameter of the area covered by 

 the branching of the roots is, from 

 north to south, twenty-nine feet six 

 inches, and from east to west, twenty- 

 eight feet, giving a superficial area of 

 82G square feet. 



So her(i we (Iiul a tree, which has- 

 been entoniljcd itiillions of years among 

 the shale in which it is embedded, now 

 recalling to us the waving forests of 

 carboniferous plants whose remain.s, 

 during va.st periods of time, have 

 changed to coal — forests in which every 

 shade of green was present but not a 

 single iiow(^r. Animal life was repre- 

 sented by comparatively few species, 

 and the climate was adapted to the 

 production of a rapid, luxuriant vege- 

 table growth; which, as it accumulated, 

 changed to coal, and thus formed the 

 vast sources of the energy required in 

 our progressive age — coal as the liottled 

 energy of the past, and to-day we are 

 taking it out from the vast storehouses 

 (mines) to apply it to practical pur- 

 poses. 



To the most indiH'erent, this "stoney 

 tree," or better, stump, becomes an ob- 

 ject of great interest, and to the con- 

 templative mind, one of great instruc- 

 tion. 



Fid. 43.— An Im.mkn 



