282 ' Remarkable Petrifaction. 



cuted by any village ploughman. It is adapted to the rais- 

 ing of water for agricultural and economical purposes. M. 

 Godin furnishes those who desire it with engraved repre- 

 sentations of his machine, accompanied with instructions, 

 for its fabrication, and if desired a model in relief. — Idem, 



40. Sea Signals. 



Experiments have been made in the neighbourhood of 

 Paris upon a new kind of nautical telegraph, intended to 

 furnish by day and by night the means of enabling seamen to 

 communicate with each other, and with a neighbouring 

 coast, in all languages at the distance of three or four 

 leagues. This improvement may be the means of dimin- 

 ishing the number of shipwrecks. — Idem. 



41. Remarkable Petrifaction. 



A tree about twenty six inches in diameter has 

 been found in the actual erect condition in which it grew, 

 but in a state of complete pretrifaction, in a sand stone quar- 

 ry near Glasgow in Scotland. The body of the tree itself 

 is composed of sandstone similar to the rest of the quar- 

 ry. But the bark has been converted into a perfect coal, 

 which adheres firmly to the tree and renders it easy to re- 

 move the rock with which the tree is incrusted. About 

 three feet of the bottom part has been uncovered. This 

 portion is situated about forty feet below the surface of the 

 earth, in a solid quarry of sand stone. The roots may be 

 seen dipping into the earth precisely as the roots of living 

 trees do. Four large roots may be seen issuing from the 

 trunk and extending about a foot before they are lost in the 

 quarry. The upper part of the trunk and branches has not 

 been traced. This petrifaction demonstrates that the sand 

 stone has been formed at a period posterior to the existence of 

 large trees, and that the water-worn appearance of the quarry 

 pebbles of which the sand stone is composed is not a deceit- 

 ful indication, as some Geologists would persuade us, but 

 quite correct. But if the sand stone which constitutes so 

 great a proportion of the coal beds, be a formation posterior 

 to the earth's being covered with wood, we can entertain 

 no doubt that this was the case also with the slate clay, and 



