163 



dirt-bed. The stools stand from two to three feet above the surface 

 of the ground, and vary from two to four feet in diameter ; but one in 

 the lake is at least four feet above the level of the water, and five or six 

 feet in diameter. In several of the stumps from 60 to 120 concen- 

 tric rings of growth may be counted : a few of the stools are hollow 

 in the centre, but others are solid throughout : the wood appears to 

 be coniferous. Veins of chalcedony traverse the substance of the 

 trunks between the concentric rings, and also in the direction of the 

 radial lines. 



Many of the stems at Kurrur-kurran have the bark adhering firmly 

 to the trunk, and the bark in one instance was of the thickness of 

 three inches. Its appearance in one or two cases was such as to 

 show that it had been partly torn from the tree while yet standing, 

 as if it had been broken down and the bark had been rent by the 

 fall. 



The colour of the substance of the stems "within varies from a 

 greyish white to a clouded grey, but their surfaces, when exposed to 

 the air, have become yellowish by w-eathering ; many are overgrown 

 by lichens, and have then exactly the appearance of the stumps of 

 recent trees. The upper extremities of the fossil stumps present 

 clean horizontal sections, which shows that they were not broken off 

 while recent, since no mode of fracturing recent pinew^ood could have 

 occasioned such neat, plain and parallel sections as the summits of 

 these stumps exhibit. 



In a fragment of the sandstone from the base of one of the fossil 

 stumps, the siUcified impression of part of the leaf of a Glossopteris 

 was found. 



Immediately below the jQinty stratum in w^hich the trees are found 

 is a bed cf lignite ; above the level at which the trees occur, 

 there are found, imbedded in the sandstones and conglomerates, 

 immense quantities of broken fragments of trees, apparently stripped 

 of their boughs and branches. These fragments are generally di- 

 vested of their bark, and appear to have been drifted. 



Fossil trees are found in this formation at other places, and nearly 

 at the same level above the sea as at Kurrur-kurran ; they occur in 

 sandstone similar to that of Kurrur-kurran, at the southern extre- 

 mity of the Tirabeenba mountcdn, immediately above and below a 

 bed of lignite. At the spot referred to, pits have verj' recently been 

 opened for working the lignite, at the level of about four feet above 

 the surface of the lake. At the south head of Reid's Mistake, which 

 is the name for the sea-entrance to the inlet of Awaaba, similar beds 

 of sandstone occur, and these are traversed vertically by the trunks 

 of trees, while other trees lie horizontally in the same beds. Lines 

 of division, Vv'hich appear to be owing to the contraction of the whole 

 mass, intersect both the trees and their matrix : these trees are found 

 at a somewhat higher level than the sea. At nearly the same level 

 in Nirritinbali (or ^Mutton-bird Island), oiF the entrance to Awaaba, 

 large stools and stems of trees occur in conglomerate, which conglo- 

 merate reposes on beds of lignite. Fossil trees are also found in 

 conglomerate reposing on lignite on the coast north of the entrance 



