274 Geological Gleanings, 



" On several of the neighbouring hills I observed distinct strati- 

 fications of wood running horizontally in a circular course, 

 formed by the protrusion of the ends of the trunks of trees, to 

 some of which the bark still adhered ; and large pieces of this, 

 cropping out and hanging loosely, frequently led in other situations 

 to our detection of the wood to which the bark adhered in the soil. 

 Any attempt to remove these with the hand or other slight means 

 failed ; and excavation ever established the fact that the hills were 

 entirely composed of wood — the appearances met with being iden- 

 tical with those first mentioned. On subsequent occasions, wheD 

 exploring the land several miles in the interior, observation led me 

 to infer that a precisely similar state of things there existed. The 

 situation in which our first excavation was made was in lat. 74° 

 27' N., long. 122° 32' 15" W., and about a quarter of a mile from 

 the beach. The distance, inland, whence similar appearances were 

 observed, embraced a circuit from eight to ten miles in diameter." 



5. Age of remains found in Deltas. — All geologists are aware how 

 much uncertainty attends any reasoning as to the age of remains 

 found in alluvial deposits, based on the depth at which they are 

 imbedded ; but very incautious inferences are sometimes drawn 

 from such facts. The following from the Athenaium shows the 

 extent of error possible in such reasoning. 



" Pottery in the Bowels of the Earth. — In a late number of the 

 Athenwum it was, I think, stated that a traveller in Egypt, having 

 lately found a piece of pottery at some 30 feet below the present 

 surface of the soil on the banks of the Nile, came to the conclusion 

 that, because the annual deposit of earth by the stream would 

 have required so many centuries to lay down so many feet of 

 earth, — therefore, the bit of pottery found must have been manu- 

 factured some 13,000 years before the beginning of the Christian 

 era. Does the following statement of facts bear at all on such a 

 theory ? Having lived for many years of my life on the banks of 

 the river Ganges, I have seen the stream encroach on a village, 

 undermining the bank where it stood, and deposit as a natural 

 result bricks, pottery, &c. in the bottom of the stream. On one 

 occasion, I am certain that the depth of the stream where the bank 

 was breaking was above 40 feet ; yet in three years the current 

 of the river shifted so much that a fresh deposit of soil took place 

 over the debris of the village, and the earth was raised to a level 

 with the old bank. Now, had our traveller then obtained a bit of 

 pottery from where it had lain for only three years, could he 



