[ 173 ] 



XV. — Description of the Fossil Trees found in the Excavations for the 

 Manchester and BoUon Railway. 



By JOHN HAWKSHAW, Esq., F.G.S. 



[Read June 5th, 1839.] 

 Plate XVII. 



The fossil trees, to which the following observations refer, were found at Dixon 

 Fold, Clifton, near Manchester, in making the excavations for the Manchester and 

 Bolton Railway^. The largest of these fossils. No. 1. (see PI. XVII.), was disco- 

 vered about two years since (1837) ; and the others have been met with during the 

 last three months, in excavating below the level of the rails to form a drain. No. 1. 

 may have been taller than it now is, for being of a friable nature, a portion of its 

 upper end might easily have been removed by the workmen before they discovered 

 what it was. This observation is still more applicable to the others, as they are 

 further within the line of railway, and the earth above them was removed in larger 

 masses ; but though they may have been shortened by this means, it is not pro- 

 bable that the imbedded remains of the original stems could have been more than 

 a few feet longer than at present. 



The section (fig. 6.) showing the stratification above the fossils, is in the 

 direction of the line of railway, or from south-east to north-west ; but the dip of 

 the strata being nearly due south, at an angle of about fifteen degrees, the section 

 passes obliquely across the dip. The dotted horizontal line is very nearly coinci- 

 dent with that of the rails. 



The small bed of coal, the " two-feet mine" (see Section, PI. XVII.) beneath 

 which these fossils stand, occupies an intermediate place in the coal-field of the 

 district. There are above the two-feet mine, in a thickness of about 130 yards, four 

 other " mines" of coal, of an aggregate thickness of sixteen feet. The next subja- 

 cent coal-bed is forty-five yards below the two-feet mine. It consists of cannel coal, 



* Care has been taken to preserve them, and they are now standing erect as when found ; and being 

 as much protected from the weather as their situation will admit, they will retain, for twelve months, at 

 least, their original sharpness of outline sufficiently to render them interesting to the geologist. (1839.) 



