174 Mr. Hawkshaw on Fossil TVees found in the 



and is so irregular in dimensions, as to vary within a space of 600 yards from 

 three to thirteen feet in thickness. Below the cannel are five or six other beds, all 

 of which are worked within a few miles, so much does this part of the country seem 

 to have been affected by physical derangement. 



The five fossils are nearly in a straight line, and being parallel to the direc- 

 tion of the railway, they stand obliquely across the dip of the strata. In the 

 direction of the section, a line drawn through the roots of the trees is conformable 

 to the inchnation of the strata ; and in the direction of the true dip, this is still 

 more plainly the case, the large spreading roots of No. 2. and No. 5. being quite 

 conformable to the inclination of the stratum on which they rest ; and the roots 

 of the others are equally so to the extent to which they are seen, but being less 

 exposed, they are not so striking in this respect. The whole of the stems stand 

 very nearly at right angles to the plane of stratification. They are chiefly imbedded 

 in a soft argillaceous blue shale, but that which surrounds the upper end of No. 1. 

 is of a more sihceous nature. In the same plane as the roots, a thin stratum of 

 coal has been found as far as the excavations have extended. 



A still more remarkable circumstance is the great abundance of the Lepidostrobus 

 variabilis about the level of the roots ; for in the small excavations made around 

 each tree, and just in the covering of the roots, more than a bushel of these fossils 

 was found, chiefly in single specimens, forming the centre or nucleus of ovate 

 nodules of bluish argillaceous shale. These specimens forwarded to the Society 

 have been examined by Mr. Morris, who fully agrees in the above determination. 



The whole of the fossil trees had a coating of coal, varying in thickness from 

 a quarter to three-quarters of an inch ; but generally it was so soft and friable, that, 

 in removing the shale from around the trees, it crumbled off. The fossils conse- 

 quently now appear to be almost decorticated ; but the existence of the coaly enve- 

 lope proves that they retained their bark wholly or in part when they were enclosed 

 by their present matrix. Near the root of No. 5. a portion of this coal, about 

 three-quarters of an inch thick, remains strong and firm. Its surface is marked 

 slightly with longitudinal flutings, but they are very irregular in distance and 

 direction. 



The whole of the decorticated surface of the fossils has similar markings, the 

 depression of the flutings being generally less than a quarter of an inch, and the 

 intervening spaces about two inches broad ; but there is considerable irregularity 

 in this respect, and nearer the roots the slight furrows almost disappear. In seve- 

 ral places, the surface of the cast of the trunk, and which evidently corresponds 

 to that beneath the bark of the trees, bears distinct impressions of the woody 

 fibre. This fibrous appearance is not generally longitudinal and parallel, but waving 

 and irregular ; resembling the peeled surface of our hard-wooded forest-trees. 



