NERBUDDA DISTRICT. 215 



description of the tree stems are accurate and well given; but there do 

 not appear to be equal grounds for admitting his conclusions as to the mode 

 of fossilization. This, he argues, must have occurred after the trees had 

 become recumbent ; for if silicified previously, the fall would have shat- 

 tered them to pieces, whereas in a length of 20 feet from the root there 

 was only one interval of one and a half inch long, between the pieces 

 longitudinally, while at the same time they had undergone considerable 

 lateral displacement. This displacement also must have taken place 

 after the trees had been lapidified, because the fractures are straight 

 and even. He concludes from all u that the fossilization and displace- 

 ment must both have occurred whilst the trap was unconsolidated, and 

 must have been very speedy." The Editor of the Bombay Journal sug- 

 gests with reference to this, that the fossilization and displacement need 

 not both have occurred whilst the trap was still unconsolidated, inas- 

 much as an earthquake might have caused the displacement. It is difficult 

 to see how any earth movement could have displaced the stems, and 

 left no proof of the movement on the rocks enclosing them, which, on 

 the supposition, were then (at the period of the earth movement) con- 

 solidated. Nor would it account for the trees being imbedded partially 

 in the basalt. But Captain Nicolls further argues that the trees " could 

 " not have been fossilized before they became recumbent ; but that they 

 (i must have been upturned simultaneously with the outburst of trap, 

 " and probably borne along with it for a short distance/' as trap for a 

 short distance underlies them. 



We would remark that it by no means follows that this underlying 

 trap is part of the same flow, as that which overlies, and partially en- 

 closes these stems; on the contrary, we believe it to be a portion of a 

 long anterior flow. 



duce the effect. But the same may be traced continuously into the higher ground adjoin- 

 ing, where it attains a thickness of 60 to 100 feet and its present diminutive thickness of 

 some five feet, where these stems are found, is apparently due solely to denudation. 



