78 MR SMITH ON THE CHANGES 



ed among the moss, and some of the smaller fibres penetrat- 

 ing the clay below. The trunks and branches of the trees, 

 lying horizontally, are all fresh, and have the appearance 

 of having been borne down, and laid flat by some powerful 

 cause ; and what is also very remarkable, many of the 

 roots seem to have had their trunks cut off about six inches 



scribed, is embedded in the sandstone of the coal measures in a quarry 

 near Glasgow. As it is within two miles of my residence, I watched 

 the progress of its being uncovered almost daily during the time the 

 operations of the quarry were carrying on. They were abandoned, 

 however, after at least a dozen of trees had been laid open, chiefly on 

 account of the difficulty of extracting building stones from amongst 

 their roots. The trees were necessarily destroyed as the work pro- 

 ceeded, but, at my request, Mr Black, the proprietor, was kind enough 

 to order two of them to be preserved, one of them, a, with the roots 

 laid bare, the other, b, enclosed in a mass of the stone, in which they 



were embedded ; the first has been since removed, but the latter re- 

 mains and the truncated ends of the roots may be observed on every 

 side. The trees were as near each other as they could have grown, 

 the roots branching naturally out, without fracture or disturbance ; 

 the trunks, about two feet above the roots, were overlaid by a bed of 

 stone, through which they did not pass, over this was another of shale, 

 at least 7 feet thick. We have here all the proofs of a tranquil sub- 

 mergence, probably in a sheltered lagoon. The trees have been sand- 

 ed up about 2 feet from the original surface, and the upper part remov- 

 ed by natural decay or the force of the wind, and a stratum of sand 

 superimposed ; as the water deepened, the clay which now forms the 

 shale has been deposited, just as sand-banks are at present forming in 

 the shallows, and beds of clay in the deep water in the Firth of Clyde. 

 Mr Edward Forbes has observed a fossil forest agreeing in all respects 

 with the above, in the coal formation of the county of Fife. It is near 

 Anstruther, and has been exposed by the action of the sea. 



