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530 



IMBEDDING OF OEGANIC EEMAINS 



[Ch. XL VI. 



the termination of which it is separated by 200 yards of 

 shingle and drift-sand. Down the valley flows a large brook, 

 traversing near its mouth a considerable tract of 



rough 



boggy, and heathy ground, which produces a few birch trees, 



submer 



{Mu 



In 



more large stump 



to two feet in height, the roots and bases of which still retain 

 their bark. The sap-wood of these is soft and spongy, but per- 

 fectly white, and exhibiting its original character. The heart- 

 wood is exceedingly hard and tough, and in the larger stumps, 

 of a greenish hue like asbestos, saturated with moisture 

 and exhaling a strong odour of sulphuretted hydrogen. 

 ' This odour, and the gTeenish colour, are dependent,' says 

 Mr. Harris, ' on an incipient formation of iron pyrites, which 



some 



The pyrites 

 and fibres. 



some 



r 



stems of grasses 



diameter 



f oUowmg the gram of the wood and often supplying its place^ 

 so as not to be easily perceivable till broken/ 



Seventy-six rings of annual growth were comited in a 

 transverse section of one of the trees^ which was fourteen 

 inches in diameter. Besides the stnmps and roots of fir^ 

 rushes^ and other compressed vegetable matter and pieces 

 of alder and birch^ are found in the peat. In the centre 

 of the formation the peat was pierced two feet and a half 

 without being passed through ; towards its edges^ however^ 

 it is seen resting on a stratum of bluish pebbles^ clay and 

 sand, which crops out also on its seaward side, and is precisely 

 similar to the sand and pebbles that occur on the adjoining 

 heaths. The whole formation was shown to exist 40 years 



same 



learn from Archdeacon Hi 



(Feb. 



1868) that on several occasions he has since revisited the spot 

 and ag^ain observed the stumps in situ. 



Now 



pose that at some former period the Bournemouth Valley ex- 





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