290 [Jan. 3, ' 



one part the overlying fire clay lias been removed, and the surface 

 of the coal exposed, over an area of a somewhat triangular shape, 

 for about 2,700 square yards. 



This terrace of coal exhibits on its surface one of the most re- 

 markable accumulations of the fossil remains of the vegetation of 

 the coal period ever exposed to view.* There are upAvards of 

 seventy trunks of trees, apparently dicotyledonous, broken off close 

 to the root, and several of them are more than 8 feet in circum- 

 ference ; the prostrate trunks lying across each other in every 

 direction. One of these measured 30 feet, another 15 feet in 

 length, and several others a few feet less. They are invariably 

 flattened to the thickness of from one to two inches, yet both iipper 

 and under side preserve a distinct trace of bark. The stumps, also, 

 exhibit a distinct ring of bark, which, as usual, has become a 

 bright coal, with a crystalline fracture ; while the interior or 

 woody part is a dead-looking coal, nearly approaching to cannel 

 coal. 



These stumps seldom rise much above the surface. Many of 

 them are surrounded by a circular ridge, formed by the materials 

 of the bed accumulating round them. In a fcAV cases the place of 

 a trunk is marked by a circular depression in the coal, the trunk 

 having been probably removed with the overlying fire clay. In 

 some of the stumps the thick diverging roots may be traced by 

 clearing off the coal, nearly a yard from the circle of bark ; and I 

 was enabled to clear away from one of the trees the surrounding 

 coal and shale, down to the substratum of fire clay ; but no trace 

 of stems or of the long radicles or leaves of stigmaria were found, 

 either in the shale or fire clay. Impressions, more or less distinct, 

 of stems of Stigmaria Jicoides, are found in the shale in some 

 parts of the deposit ; but in no case, so far as we could discover, 

 could any connection be traced with the adj acent trunks. Many spots 

 between the trunks are almost covered with impressions of Cala- 

 mites, two or three distinct species of which may be recognised, in 

 some places forming groups of six or eight square feet. The stems 

 of Lepidodendra with the impressions of the scales finely pre- 

 served, and Lepidostrobi, are also scattered in profusion over the 

 surface ; and mingled with these vegetable remains are occasionally 

 found the teeth and other fragments of fishes. There are also 

 found ring-shaped bodies, sometimes in pairs, which appear to me 

 to be identical with the bodies figured in Plates 8 and 10 of 

 Dr. Hibbert's Paper on the Fresh-water Limestone of Burdie 

 House, in the 10th Vol. of the Trans, of Roy. Soc. of Edinburgh, 

 p. 169. ; and said to be the scales of Megaliehthys Hibberti, which 

 have lost their extei'nal lamellar structure. 



Not the least curious circumstance, in connection with this 

 deposit, is, that although the whole is not more than 12 feet in 

 thickness, there are at least three distinct beds of coal, each of 

 Avhich exhibits on its surface the remains of an ancient forest of 



* See diagram, p. 43. 



