58 proceedings of the geological society. [jan. 19, 



January 19, 1853, 



John Brogden, Jun., Esq., was elected a Fellow. 



The following communications were read : — 



1. On the Remains of a Reptile (Dendrerpeton Acadianum, 

 Wyman and Owen) and of a Land Shell discovered in the 

 Interior of an Erect Fossil Tree in the Coal Measures 

 of Nova Scotia. By Sir Charles Lyell, F.R.S., V.P.G.S. 

 &c., and J. W. Dawson, Esq. 



[Plates II., III., IV.] 



Descriptions and sections of the Coal-formation of Nova Scotia, 

 and particularly of the cliffs called the South Joggins, have been pub- 

 lished by Messrs. Jackson and Alger*, Mr. Brown f, Dr. Gesner^:, 

 Sir C, Lyell §, and Mr. Logan ||. In September last (1852) the 

 authors of the present notice re-visited and re-examined the strata in 

 a part of these cliffs, with a view of ascertaining what may have been 

 the particular circumstances which favoured the preservation of so 

 many fossil trees, at so many different levels, in an erect position ; 

 such a position being a rare and very exceptional fact in the coal 

 strata of North America generally. We were also desirous of ob- 

 taining additional evidence on a point which is still a matter of con- 

 troversy in the United States and elsewhere (although we ourselves 

 were already satisfied with the evidence adduced by Mr. Binney^ and 

 others), namely, the relation of Stigmaria, as a root, to Sigillaria. 

 We also directed our special attention to the difference of the depo- 

 sits enveloping the upright trees, and those which fill the trunks 

 themselves, forming casts within a cylinder of bark now turned to 

 coal, the central wood of the trunk having decayed. We searched 

 diligently for fossils in these stony casts, suspecting that organic 

 bodies preserved in so peculiar a situation might differ from such as 

 are buried in ordinary subaqueous strata. With this object we em- 

 ployed a labourer to dig out many vertical trees from the cliffs, so 

 that we might break them up and carefully examine their stony con- 

 tents. To clear out the trees, so as to expose to view both their 

 trunks and roots, is a work of no small bodily labour. 



We reserve for a future communication to the Society an account 

 of the general results which we obtained from an inspection of a series 

 of coal-measures 1400 feet in thickness, and shall confine our present 

 remarks to a few strata, not more than 10 feet thick, which enclose 

 certain vertical trees ; — one of these trees having Stigmarian roots, 



* See Jackson and Alger on the Mineralogy and Geology of Nova Scotia, Sill. 

 Amer. Journ. xiv. p. 305, 1828, and Mem. of Amer. Acad, of Arts and Sciences, 

 vol. i. New Ser. 1833. Cambridge, Mass. 



\ Reports on Nova Scotia Coal Fields, 1829. 



% Remarks on the Geology and Mineralogy of Nova Scotia, 1836. 



§ Travels in North America, 1845, vol. ii. p. 180. 



II First Report of Survey of Canada, Appendix, 1845. 



^ See E. W. Binney, on the Dukinfield and St. Helen's Sigillaria, Quart. Journ. 

 Geol. Soc. vol. ii. p. 392. 1846. 



