Fossil Trees in the Coal Strata of Nova Scotia. 355 
The trunks of the trees, which are all broken off abruptly at the 
top, extend through different strata, but were never seen to pen- 
etrate a seam of coal however thin. They all end downwards, 
either in beds of coal or shale, no instance occurring of their ter- 
mination in sandstone. Sometimes the strata of shale, sandstone 
and clay with which the fossil trunks have been filled are much 
more numerous than the beds which they traverse. In one case 
nine distinct deposits were seen in the interior of a tree, while 
only three occurred on the outside in the same vertical height. 
Immediately above the uppermost coal-seams and vertical trees 
are two strata, probably of fresh-water origin, of black calcareo- 
bituminous shale, chiefly made up of compressed shells of two 
species of Modiola and two kinds of Cypris. 
Stigmariz are abundant in the clays and argillaceous sand- 
stones, often with their leaves attached, and spreading regularly in 
all directions from the stem. The other plants dispersed through 
the shales and sandstones bear a striking resemblance to those of 
the European coal-fields. Among these are Pecopteris Conchi- 
tica, Neuropteris flexuosa? Calamites canneformis, C. approxi- 
matus, C. Steinhaueri, and C. Nodosus, Sigillaria undulata and 
another species. ‘The genera Lepidodendron and Sternbergia 
are also present. ‘The same plants occur at Pictou, and at Syd- 
ney in Cape Breton, accompanied with 'Trigonocarpum, Astero- 
phyllites, Sphenophyllum, and other well known coal-fossils. 
‘The author then gives a brief description of a bed of erect Ca- 
lamites, first discovered by Mr. J. Dawson, in the Pictou coal- 
field, about one hundred miles eastward of the Cumberland coal- 
measures before described. ‘They occur at Dickson’s mills, one 
mile and a quarter west of Pictou, in a bed of sandstone about ten 
feet thick. They all terminate downwards at the same level, 
where the sandstone rests on subjacent limestone, but the tops 
are broken off at different heights, and Mr. Dawson observed in 
the same bed a prostrate Lepidodendron with leaves and Lepi- 
dostrobi attached to its branches. 
From the facts above enumerated Mr. Lyell draws the follow- 
ing conclusions :— 
1. That the erect position of the trees, and their perpendicu- 
larity to the places of stratification, imply that a thickness of 
several thousand feet of coal-strata, now uniformly inclined at 
an angle of 24°, were deposited originally in a horizontal posi- 
tion. 
