Excavations for the Bolton and Manchester Railway. 175 



The largest of these fossils (No. 1. of PI. XVII.) is about fifteen feet in circum- 

 ference at its base, and seven and a half feet at its top, and is eleven feet high. 

 The next in size (No. 5. of PL XVII.) is less conical in shape, and measures seven 

 and a half feet in circumference, and is six feet in height. 



The fossil No. 2. has a shorter trunk ; but is nine feet in circumference and 

 two and a half feet in height. It has three large spreading roots which are nearly 

 four feet in circumference at their commencement, and which, after extending 

 six feet from the trunk, separate into eight arms cr roots. The other two 

 fossils (Nos. 3, 4.) are of smaller size, being three feet and five feet in height 

 respectively, and six feet in circumference ; and their roots seem to extend but 

 a short way into the soft shale and coaly matter. The roots of No. 5, as far as ex- 

 posed, are solid and strong and four feet in circumference, and being quite un- 

 broken, they have every appearance of being prolonged to a considerable distance 

 from the trunk of the tree. There is no reason for supposing that the roots of 

 No. 1. are not equally spreading, but the position of both these fossils rendered it 

 difficult to follow them further. None of the drawings show the roots so perfectly 

 as they are seen in situ ; for all the fossils, except No. 1, being considerably below 

 the level of the rails, and standing in deep holes, the artist in drawing them had 

 to take a bird's eye view, which rendered it difficult to delineate them perfectly. 



The description which I have given of the appearance of the fossils and their 

 situation, will, I hope, with the assistance of the drawings, be understood ; it there- 

 fore only remains to add a few general observations. 



I have already mentioned, that the roots of the trees were covered with a thin 

 stratum of coal : by excavating on the opposite side of the railway, I found that 

 this seam (eight to ten inches thick) extended under the railway, and to a distance 

 therefore of ten yards at least from the trees ; and it is likely that it ranges much 

 further. It probably represents what was formerly the vegetable covering of the 

 spot on which the trees stand. It is true, that the fact of the trees having been 

 found erect, would not prove that they grew there ; but that they now stand, 

 (broken and fossilized,) on the very spot where they once flourished, is rendered 

 exceedingly likely by the circumstance of all of them being perpendicular to the 

 stratum on which they rest. Having, during a residence in South American forests, 

 been accustomed to see trees torn by the roots and carried to and fro, I find it 

 difficult to conceive that, even once in ten times, a tree so transported and re- 

 planted (if I may use the expression) in another place would be left quite in a per- 

 pendicular position. There is, perhaps scarcely ever, in trees of large girth, such 

 a preponderance of weight in the roots as to ensure more than obliquity of position 

 in deposition after such a removal ; for the earth torn up with the roots is soon 

 washed off" ; and that five trees near together should all have been thus placed quite 



