Suburban Geology of Richmond, Indiana. 303 



forty four miles east of Richmond, wood has frequently been dug 

 out of this stratum in excavating wells. In one instance, a stump, 

 I think of pine, was found in an erect posture ; and a piece of 

 wood, now in my possession, obtained there at the depth of four- 

 teen feet, is evidently pine or some closely allied species of Coni- 

 fera ; even the terebinthinate taste is still perceptible in it. This 

 piece of fossil wood has greatly shrunk and split, separating at 

 the junction of the annual layers and along the fibres into quad- 

 rangular strips. The surface is black, as if it had been covered 

 with ink. For a long time after it was taken from the earth, it 

 retained the characteristic sulphurous odor of this stratum. No 

 pine grows near Springboro'. 



About the same distance west of Richmond, in Madison County, 

 twigs and other pieces of wood have also been found at the depth 

 of twenty seven feet. The fragments I have obtained from that 

 locality resemble elm, but I cannot be certain that that is the ac- 

 tual species of timber. 



In excavating a well in Richmond, several sticks, and a chip 

 having palpable marks of an edged tool upon it, were disinterred 

 nearly thirty feet below the surface. The sticks I saw a number 

 of times in the house in which they were preserved, but I do 

 not know to what wood they belonged ; and the species to which 

 the chip belongs I have not yet (and it has been examined re- 

 peatedly in my cabinet for a number of years) been able to de- 

 termine ; I can only say, that on cutting it the texture is found 

 to resemble that of sycamore (Platanus Occidentalis) more closely 

 than of any other wood with which I have been induced to com- 

 pare it.* 



Bowlders. — I have taken much pains to examine the mineral 

 character of these transported masses, as I have found them 

 strewed over the neighboring country, or thrown out from vari- 

 ous excavations. My original intention was to make a thorough 

 examination in this vicinity, and report the result of my investi- 

 gations in an article exclusively devoted to the subject ; but as 

 these bodies very properly claim attention in the present essay, 

 I shall curtail my notes respecting them so as to admit a brief 

 report in this place. 



* See a notice from Prof. Carpenter in this Journal, Vol. xxxvi, p. 118, giving 

 an account of buried wood bearing axe-marks. — Ens. 



