Preliminary Note (m Recent Discoveries. *J 



to constitute forest soils. It is 22 inches in diameter, and is 

 about seven in height ; but only about 18 inches of the lower 

 part are productive, and are largely composed of a dark- 

 coloured laminated material, much damaged by the percola- 

 tion of ferruginous water. The enclosing beds are, in 

 ascending order, coarse shale and sandstone 3 feet, sand- 

 stone 4 feet, and beds of coal with shaly partings 2 feet. 

 The contents of this tree have as yet been only cursorily 

 examined, and though it contains many small bones, these 

 arc for the most part not in so good preservation as in the 

 other tree. They include specimens of Dendrerpeton and 

 Hylonomus. 



It is probable that at least twenty batrachians found a 

 grave in the first mentioned tree. Among the vegetable 

 matter mixed with the bones, I have noticed fragments of 

 Lepidodendron and Catamites, and leaves of Cordaites and 

 ferns, and stems with numbers of aerial roots of the type of 

 Psaronius ; but most are mere scraps of bark and decayed 

 wood, such as might drop in, or be washed in from the sur- 

 face by rain. 



On the whole the preliminary examination of these 

 trees does not indicate material change of fauna during the 

 deposition of fifteen successive coal-beds and their accom- 

 paniments. It would also seem to show that the trees 

 previously extracted, about thirty in number, have nearly 

 exhausted the terrestrial vertebrate fauna of the locality. 



For descriptions of the species hitherto discovered in 

 these singular repositories ; reference may be made to the 

 author's " Geology of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and 

 Prince Edward Island," chapter xviii., to his "Air-breathers 

 of the Coal Period," and to his paper on " Erect Trees con- 

 taining Animal Remains" in the Transactions of the Royal 

 Society of London, Part II., 1882, and for a summary of the 

 facts to "Salient Points in the Science of the Earth," 

 chapter x. More detailed notices of the fossils found in 

 the trees recently discovered will appear in the future. 



